


Finding It

by Nymerianna



Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-04-14 22:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 54,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14145816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nymerianna/pseuds/Nymerianna
Summary: Chelsea had been looking for a life on her own in order to find her true self. When she came to the Sunshine Islands as the new farmer, she found herself in between the daily struggles of a farmer and the challenge to deal with a grumpy animal dealer who didn't even seem to care for her presence. Will she be able to find what she had always searched? And what was that anyway?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this fanfiction not only because I think that there can't be enough Chelsea x Vaughn fics on the internet, but also because I'm going to have my final exams in English in about a month and I use this to improve my writing but of course also because I felt this urge to start doing fanfiction again, since the last time I wrote one has been approximately five years ago. I hope you enjoy it and make sure to let me know if you did :)

"Welcome farmer" was written all over a banner that hung over the diner's entrance. "You know,", Julia said, "We weren't quite sure if you were a boy or a girl since Taro didn't want to give away your personal data." I smiled at that statement. Taro could at least told them my name but the old man was known for his strange behaviour around everybody except his family. Well, if I think about it... he acted weird around them as well.  
"But I gotta admit that I'm happy you are a girl. At first, I was afraid you would seduce Elliot that..." at this I laughed louder than I intended to "...Yeah, I guess I don't have to be afraid.", Julia finished. I had been on the Sunshine Islands for three days now and I haven't even talked to all of the islanders but when I had met Julia on the day of my arrival it had clicked immediately. Since she's not the type of person to hold back her urge to tell everything that's in her mind, I found out about her feelings towards the shy pink-haired nerd on that exact same day. Julia's open mind and generous spirit had appealed to me from the very beginning of our acquaintanceship.  
"Let's go", I said, opening the diner's door. There were lots of balloons in the restaurant and every resident of the Sunshine Islands was present. Julia's mother Mirabelle was sitting next to Felicia I had met the day before, Natalie and Eliott – Who actually blushed when Julia entered the room – were next to them and Natalie seemed to lecture her brother. The fisher Denny was here as well, I had never talked to him before. A small black bird was placed on his shoulder and he was dressed like a pirate. His bright smile told he was a kind person and I looked forward getting to know him.  
Gannon and his daughter Eliza stood next to Nick who owned the diner and when I had seen Gannon for the very first time I was afraid. I had never seen a man this huge before but when he had smiled this crooked but sympathetic smile at me, I knew that there was no need to be scared.  
Chen, the general store's owner, and his son Charlie were in the diner as well. I hadn't really talked to them, besides when I had bought turnip seeds that morning.  
Julia pushed me in Denny's direction and smiled. "Come on,", she said, "The fisherman looks so lonely" She raised an eyebrow before turning around and going to her mother. When I reached Denny he gave me a bright smile before the bird on his shoulder started croaking.  
"Popper! Popper!" It said. I stepped back because I didn't expect that at all. Denny reached for the back of his head and blushed slightly.  
"Hehe", he said, "I'm Denny and that's Popper. He's kind of annoying sometimes. If he says something pestering just ignore him. But I shouldn't talk about this. You are Chelsea, right?"  
I kind of liked his manners and couldn't help but smile about his rambling.  
"Yes, I'm Chelsea, the new farmer. But you know that I guess since this is my welcoming party." Denny blushed a bit more at this.  
"Right, it's your party after all. I'm kind of confused today I'm sorry, I got up early today because of my fishing." "fishing, fishing!", Popper croaked as a response to Denny.  
"Your bird is ridiculous", I said because after all, I didn't really know what to say to him. He sure was a nice person but I never went fishing before.  
As if he knew what I was thinking about, he said: "We should go fishing one day! If you don't know how, I will teach you. The extra money might come handy since you're only starting your farm." He had a point I guessed and I really enjoyed his presence so I agreed on that. In the corner of my eyes, I could see Julia sitting next to her mother who was still talking to Elliot's mother. She was rather bored so I decided to go back to her.  
"You can come with me if you want but I have to prevent Julia from dying of negligence.", I offered the fisherman but he waved aside.  
"I have to go soon anyway since the fish come out of their hiding places at night and I need to catch some if I want to be able to afford my new fishing pole." He waved goodbye and smiled at me one last time that evening. Yes, we would become good friends, I knew it.  
"Julia, why don't you simply talk to him?", I asked my blonde friend. She sighed while watching Elliot and Natalie arguing. Julia flashed me a glance before sighing again.  
"Natalie would kill me if she found out about my feelings towards him. She might be a good friend but I think she's kind of overprotective. You haven't been here for a long time so you don't know their strange brother-sister-relationship. They work together so they have to spend most time of their days together. As you know, Natalie is kind of harsh and so she always shouts at him. But she would never let anything harmful happen to him and I appear to be a danger for him, according to her."  
She laughed nervously but I could see how the thought of Natalie preventing their relationship hurt her. I wanted to comfort her but I didn't know her that well and couldn't be sure about what to say so I thanked Nick silently when he opened the buffet. Since the party was for me I was honoured to be first to start gathering food.  
I ate more than I probably should have and I felt so stuffed I could barely move without feeling the urge to throw up. When Nick came to me and wanted me to try his homemade ice-cream I had to decline.  
"I can't believe you want to handle a whole farm all on your own.", Natalie said when she took place next to me. She didn't want to talk to her brother any longer so she came to me. I guess she is as happy as Julia to have a new face on the islands. I could imagine how hard it must have been to hang out with the same people every day since there is nothing else on those islands.  
"Well,", I said, "I grew up on a farm so I'm not an amateur but I guess it's going to be very hard anyway. I plan on getting animals at the beginning of summer so I have to work hard this spring.", I began. When I saw that Natalie wasn't that interested in my plans I blushed. I had started rambling. "I mean I'm really looking forward to living here.", I tried to change the subject but Natalie already started looking after her brother. When she found him standing next to Julia at the buffet, she stiffened slightly.  
"Do you think she's going to hurt him?", Natalie asked, pointing in Julia's direction. I smirked. "Well, she's so fond of him I couldn't imagine she would ever harm him."  
Natalie frowned. "This is disgusting", she muttered. She shook her head. "Maybe I should be happy for him. I never thought that there would be any girl in the world to like him like this. After all, he's just Elliot." Natalie stopped talking when she noticed this might have been the first time she talked more than two sentences at once to me. "Talking to you is kind of nice. It feels like you are actually listening.", she said before standing up abruptly.  
"Well, I am listening to you after all. It's nice talking to you as well. I guess we should do that more often.", I said, smirking. I felt like we would be good friends one day. She already had started to warm up towards me, I knew. When she went back to her brother, I could almost feel Julia's disappointment. She let herself fall on the chair next to me and watched the siblings arguing again.  
"We almost had a real conversation. Well, I talked and he listened, I guess but it was the first time we talked about something that hadn't got anything to do with work. That's good, huh?"  
I smiled at Julia's excitement. She had fallen so hard for Elliot. "I should have met everybody on the island by now, haven't I?", I asked. Julia scanned the room and shrugged.  
"You haven't met Sabrina and Regis yet, I guess. I don't know why they aren't here today. They probably have a lot of work to do since winter is over and the mining work is getting easier with every day. Regis owns a big mining company, you know? Sabrina is our age. She's shy but very sweet, you will like her."  
I smiled. I was looking forward to meeting another person my age. It seemed like this island was a paradise for single begin- to mid-twenties since there were so many bachelors and bachelorettes around. Maybe I could find somebody to love as well here. And if not, I would find many friends to spend my time with. Suddenly Julia's eyes brightened.  
"My cousin will come here in three days! He's an animal dealer who travels around the country and delivers animals to farmers. He's kind of grumpy and dark but I'm happy anyways. He's family after all." How could somebody related to Julia and Mirabelle be dark and grumpy? They seemed to be the personification of optimism and happiness. That's why I enjoy their presence that much after all. Julia continued rambling about what would happen next week but I spaced out for a second.  
"Are you even listening?", she asked and looked at me reproachfully. I blushed and reached for the back of my head.  
"Ummm...", I really wanted to apologize but Julia's attention was attracted when Elliot ran out of the room. Was he crying? I eyed Natalie. She didn't seem to care and only darted a gaze at Julia when she ran out of the diner as well. What a party.  
I watched Charlie and Eliza dancing together and I almost died because it looked so adorable. The ten-year-olds were the first ones to hit the dancefloor and soon the adults started as well. Since Natalie and I were the only young people left, I decided to go home.

I followed the path to my farm and when I had an overview of the big field and my small, rather shabby house I couldn't quite believe it. Sure, I have been here for three days but the nights were always difficult. That was when nobody was around and I could hear the clock ticking all night long. My sleep wasn't the best here since I could hear every single noise from outside the house. I should let Gannon fix that as soon as possible. It was quite cold, even though it was spring now. I only hoped it wouldn't start raining or I would need to get some buckets to contain the water dripping from the ceiling.  
When I laid in my bed I couldn't keep my eyes closed because of the wind rattling against my door. "Maybe I should write a letter to my parents", I thought before getting up and got some pen and paper.  
"Dear Mum and Dad,", I started. I couldn't decide where to start so I told them about my friendship with Julia and how I'm positive on finding many friends here. I didn't write about the noises in my house and how I couldn't sleep at night because I knew my mother would freak out about that. I probably shouldn't tell dad that there are men my age on this island, I didn't want him to come here and take me back home. I smirked when I thought about how he always had intervened when there was a boy talking to me in front of him. I sighed. I miss them so much. With a look out of the window, I realized again how much land was here, just for me and my heart beat fast when I thought of all the adventures that were going to come.  
It may have been the first time since arriving here when I could sleep peacefully. I dreamed of how I would be a successful farmer and how there was nothing to stop me from becoming one.


	2. Chapter 2

I was woken up by a banging on my door. When I looked at my alarm clock, I couldn't help but pull the blanket over my head again. Who would come here at such ungodly hour?   
I thought about the banging being just the door rattling because of the wind but when it was repeated with the same amount of energy, I got up and looked at who was outside. I took my dressing gown to cover my rather revealing pyjamas and opened the door.   
When he saw me so sleepy and confused, Denny blushed before starting to laugh. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!", he apologized. "I should have told you about my plans but I thought it might be a nice surprise.", he added before handing me his fishing pole.   
I was still standing there, only a thin layer of cotton covering my half-naked body but I was too sleepy to notice. I blinked twice before shaking my head. "Am I dreaming?", I asked the fisherman. Denny laughed before pointing in the direction of the beach. "I wanted to teach you how to fish, remember?", he said. I shook my head again. "Did you ask me whether we could do this today or not?", I asked, not remembering any conversation like this.   
"Well, not exactly. I thought I might surprise you. Now get ready, we need to go, the fish don't sleep.", he requested. I did as he asked me to and got into my coat. I put my red rubber boots on my feet and followed him to the beach. 

When we arrived at the beach, we went to the landing stage and took place on the wooden planks. He gave me his fishing rod and started lecturing me.  
"So, Chelsea. Just put the bait on there... No, it has to stay put... Okay, now you lost it.", he commented on my actions. He handed me another piece of bait and handed it to me. "Okay", he started again, "You need to attach it right here. Yes, right. Good. And now just throw it into the water and wait for the fishies to come." Denny laughed while fixing his own fishing rod.   
"You can call me Chels, you know? Everybody called me Chels back home.", I told him, trying to start a conversation while balancing the rod in my hands. He smiled brightly at me. "Okay, Chels. Oh! Your rod! I think we tricked a fish!", he said excitedly. I pulled the fishing rod up and to me. There wasn't a fish on it, not even a goldfish or something bit on it and all my and Denny's excitement was gone. I successfully caught an old boot."Well, it's something I guess?", I tried to cheer up the situation when Denny shrugged. "Somebody has to get all that trash out of the water I guess", he said.  
We were talking a bit about how he moved here in order to catch rare fish and how much he loved his little hut. I indeed was a bit curious about how he lived in there but I guessed I wouldn't have a look at his furniture anytime soon. I expected it to be some kind of man cave on the beach.   
After a little while, I already had caught some small fish, nothing big at all, when a boat was appearing on the horizon.   
"Do you think it's coming to our islands?", I asked Denny. He only shrugged, not minor curious than me. "I guess it is. But I wouldn't know where it comes from or why it comes now. You know, I know all the boats coming here and the tourists usually don't arrive this early.", he informed me.  
The boat really was driving straight towards our stage. It actually docked there and I could hear somebody drawing closer to us. I saw a tall silhouette with a Stetson on. He, I assumed it was a man, exited the boat with heavy steps, not answering the captain who said goodbye to him.  
Right when I wanted to say something, my fishing rod almost was almost being torn out of my hands. "Denny! Help me!", I shouted a little bit too loud and the fisherman grabbed my arms from behind and helped me get my catch out of the water. And what a fish it was. Enormous, a real beast. Well maybe it wasn't that big but I was excited anyway. And it was heavy!  
"Congratulations, Chels!", Denny said behind me. He still was very close to me and I could feel his breath on my neck. I blushed at the thought of how his curly hair tickled when it touched my ear when he bent over in order to take the fish out of my hands. I blushed even harder when he touched my arm slightly. "Chels", he whispered. Was it suddenly getting warmer? What was that anyway? Was this a flirt? With a look at Denny, I noticed he wasn't even looking at me but was pointing at the horizon. When I followed the direction with my eyes, I stopped breathing for a second. I had noticed that it had started getting lighter but I never noticed the beautiful view in front of me. The sun was rising and we had the best look at it since we were sitting on the stage. The sky was coloured in a mixture of violet, red and yellow, some parts were already in a light blue. There was not a single cloud there. It was simply stunning.  
I saw Denny smiling and finally realizing the position we were in. He blushed furiously before placing himself next to me again, yet a little more space was between us than before. He reached for the back of his head like he always did when he was slightly embarrassed. He pushed the bucket over to me and laughed again, this time it looked a bit pressured though. "You can have everything we caught today, I'm going to go fishing later anyway. I gotta feed Popper now or he won't talk to me for days. It was very nice sitting here with you. Bye, Chels!", he said fast and abruptly. He stood up and almost ran to his hut. Had I done anything wrong? I sighed before getting up as well and going back to my farm.

I still blushed when I was thinking about what had happened that morning. What had been going on anyway? I did like Denny, yes. And I did find him attractive, yes! But I only wanted to make friends and not to fall for the first guy to be nice to me. I tried to distract myself from those thoughts while planting my next field of turnips.  
I now had two fields of turnips, two fields of potatoes and I had already planted grass seeds in order to collect fodder for my livestock before I got it so I wouldn't need to spend so much money on that. I guessed the animals would prefer the homegrown fodder anyway.  
I had already shipped the caught fish before I went to Chen's shop to see what he had in stock for me. My first days had been really successful and I was very proud of myself for actually handling my job quite well so far.  
Charlie and Eliza were playing outside the shop and Chen greeted me friendly. I bought some more seeds so I could follow my plans of building a barn as fast as I could. When I went outside again, I could hear Natalie shouting at her brother again and I couldn't help but smile over their special relationship. Who would believe that Elliot actually was the older sibling? Taro mumbled something about his knees telling him it would be raining tomorrow. He always did that and he was always right. "If it really rained tomorrow,", I thought, "I should probably plant those seeds today. They would be watered then anyway and I wouldn't run danger to faint from exhaustion, something that had never happened to me anyway. I remembered how my father would always shout at my mum after he found her in her field, unconscious. I couldn't understand why she would always work this hard but now I kind of knew why she did.

I entered Mirabelle's shop, not being aware of there being another person than the two of us. "Hey, Mirabelle!", I said greeted her happily. She nodded at me and smiled. "Hello, Chelsea.", she answered. I went over to her counter, even though I didn't even have animals to buy something for. We did a little bit of small talk when a strange smell crawled into my nose. I looked at Mirabelle sceptically and she laughed in return. "Julia is trying to bake some cookies.", she explained. "Julia wouldn't be the best housewife I guess.", Mirabelle assumed.  
She looked at some spot behind me and laughed. "Have you already met him?", she asked, "This is my nephew Vaughn." I followed her finger with my eyes and my gaze fell on a man sitting at a desk, doing paperwork. He looked like he was straight out of a western movie. A black Stetson on his head, a brown vest on top of a black button-down shirt and he wore black jeans. He even had cowboy boots on. But what had captured me most was the gaze out of his amethyst eyes. Amethyst eyes? What an unusual colour. I wondered if he wore contacts when Mirabelle interrupted my thoughts. "He's the island's new animal dealer, so you can get livestock soon.", she said.  
"What a convenient coincidence", I thought. I came close to his desk and he looked up again. His hair was hidden under his hat but I could see the silver bangs that were framing his face. Silver hair, amethyst eyes, he was gorgeous. I blushed a bit under his gaze, he didn't look as appealed to me as I wished. I cleared my throat and started babbling. "Hey, I'm Chelsea. But all my friends call me Chels. What a pleasure to finally meet you, Julia told me about you as her cousin."  
He rose his eyebrow and grunted a "Whatever", before looking back at his calculations. How could somebody this good-looking be this... ignorant? Mean? Rude! To my surprise, he continued talking in this raspy, deep voice. "See you, Chelsea.", he muttered. I puffed up my cheeks in anger. "Yeah, well... I'll go now", I sighed before turning on my heels. "Bye then", I muttered before leaving the shop. I asked myself what a did wrong when talking to him but I concluded that he was just an unusual antisocial person. And a jerk. 

When I went back to my farm, my thoughts were still rotating around that certain cowboy. Why couldn't I simply say: "Screw him." and go on without this bad feeling in my stomach. It really felt like he had stabbed me with his rudeness. I was definitive to sensible for meetings like that.   
I entered my house and went into my bathroom. With a look in the mirror, I sighed. My hair was messy, my eyes were framed by dark circles and there was dirt all over my cheeks. What a nice first impression I must have given. No wonder he had looked at me like I was highly contagious.  
I let water flow into my bathtub and I gave much soap to it in order to make my bath nice and bubbly. I took off my clothes and let myself slide into the hot water. I finally relaxed and let all the thoughts in my brain pass by without caring to think about what had happened today once.  
Everything was so convenient and warm and I finally felt all the dirt washing from my body when I heard a banging at the door. Again. What was going on today? Usually, nobody would visit my farm. The banging went faster and faster and I heard someone shouting: "Emergency!", so I got out of my bathtub as fast as possible and opened the door, again, only wearing my dressing gown I had thrown over my wet body.


	3. Chapter 3

Pure adrenaline had rushed my body when I had heard the emergency call. I forgot what I was wearing and opened the door in a rush. My eyes were wide opened and I was ready to help. I imagined somebody lying on the floor, bleeding and crying. What I actually saw when I looked outside was a very intact Julia. "I thought you'd never open.", she said when passing me and inviting herself into my house.   
I stood there, mouth open, only wearing this damn wet dressing gown that stuck on my body like a second skin. I tried to cover up my breasts while ordering my thoughts.  
Julia had a pile of clothes in her arms and looked furious. I actually thought that a person like her couldn't even be in anger but she looked like she was about to beat somebody up. "I can't believe it.", she muttered while dropping the clothes to the floor. I had closed the door behind me and grabbed a dry towel from my closet while watching her carefully.   
"Why do they do this to me, Chels?", she asked me, reaching for my arm and holding it tight. I was overstrained with this whole situation and didn't know where to start asking all the questions in my head. Julia sighed and let go of my arm. "I'm sorry Chels, I didn't intend to interrupt a spa session of yours but you have to help me." I nodded wordlessly. "Good", she said and her smile found it's way back on her face. "Haha", she laughed, pointing at me. "You should see yourself right now. It's like we're in a movie but...better!"  
I sighed and looked at the pile of clothing on my floor.   
"What is this?", I asked her. I could see a hint of annoyance lighting up in her eyes but I tried to ignore it.   
"This,", she started, "Is what I had to sacrifice so my cousin could stay at our house when he's on this islands." I couldn't help but stare at my friend. What was going on here? And what had Vaughn to do with it?   
"Julia, I beg you: Could you please talk to me and tell me how those clothes are connected to your cousin and why I have to help you out of this situation?"  
Her smile turned even brighter.   
"I knew you would help me!", she said excitedly. I shook my head in disbelieve and watched her taking the pieces and folding them neatly. I thanked the Harvest Goddess when Julia finally started explaining the whole situation to me. "You know, I don't have any siblings so we don't have that many rooms in our house. And Vaughn has to sleep somewhere and mum has refused his offer to sleep on the couch. I mean, why can't he just sleep on that damn couch if he wants to? Okay, sorry, I got to calm down a bit...", she took place on my sofa before she continued talking. "Long story short, he needs a place to sleep so my mum said he could have my closet as his room. Can you believe it? I have to give away all those beautiful things just so he can sleep somewhere on two days a week?" I tried to follow her rambling and kind of stopped at the fact with the closet.   
"You let a guest sleep in a closet?!", I asked, shocked. Julia rolled her eyes as if her answer to that was absolutely obvious.   
"It's not a closet. I mean, it is my closet but it kind of is a small extra room I stuffed with my clothes over time. You know, I have got so much that I can't fit it in just a dresser." I looked at her wide-eyed. "So you came all the way up to my farm to throw your clothes on the floor and ramble about how you need a new closet because of Vaughn needing a place to sleep?", I asked. She laughed joyfully. What was happening here? Julia started talking again.   
"Chels, this is where the fun part begins. Because every story needs a happy end, right?", she asked, wiggling her eyebrows. I blinked at her. "Yoouuu," Julia pointed at me, "are going to take good care of my clothes, aren't you?", she asked. I scratched my head and shrugged.   
"Julia I don't care at all when you want to store all your outfits here but why did you have to put up a show like this?", my best and kind of only friend on this island shrieked and hugged me at this statement. "Chels, you are the best!", she mumbled. When she let go of me she had a look in her eyes that reminded me of the one she gave me when she wanted me to talk to Denny at the party.   
"Of course you benefit from this as well. I store all the special clothes I don't need to have every day here in your house and you are free to wear them whenever you want!", she said. I smiled. "Deal.", I answered. 

Julia had gone shortly after we made the agreement and I had put the clothes in my dresser already. Since I worked as a farmer and there wasn't a reason for me to get all glam and dressed up, I almost had nothing for special occasions. Now I had. Julia had actually brought me wonderful outfits. Skirts, blouses, dresses... Everything a girl could ever dream of. I wondered why she owned so many pieces but I didn't mind at all being free to wear them whenever I wanted to. She had also invited me to dinner for the day after and I had accepted without hesitation. Even though I hoped Mirabelle would do all the work in the kitchen and Julia would be more like a mental supporter.   
I remembered that I wanted to plant the seeds I had bought that day but since I was already bathed and clean I didn't want to. When I put my big toe in the bathtub I recognized that the water was already cold and all the bubbles were gone anyway. I emptied the bathtub and fixed myself something to eat. I was kind of a hypocrite when I thought about how I commented on Julia's burnt cookies or whatever she was doing. I wouldn't call myself a big chef since my mother used to cook for me before I moved out and now I kind of depended on dinner invitations and my ability to making a salad. 

When my alarm clock woke me up on the next day, I heard the sound of falling rain outside my house and fell back into my pillow. I had forgotten to plant the seeds yesterday... Why... I rolled from side to side and accidentally let my foot slip out of the bed in the freezing air. I really needed to let Gannon isolate my house. I sighed before eventually getting out of the sheets. Nobody was knocking on the door, nobody wanted to talk to me, everything indicated that it would be the perfect morning – If we forgot about that fact that I actually had forgotten to plant those seeds and so I had to plant them in the rain. What a pleasure. I decided to have breakfast after work and went outside, my yellow raincoat and my red rubber boots on. The rain actually had been a lot worse than I had expected but I wanted to make this as fast as possible so I sprinted to my field and did what I had to do.   
After a while, I started jumping around in the rain and when I landed in a big puddle I continued dancing. My life was simply wonderful right now and I couldn't think of anything better than having this land and being a successful farmer. I praised myself and all the work I had done in the last days. Finally, I could be who I was.  
Of course, I wasn't lucky enough to let my little show in the mud be undetected and I screamed in fear when somebody touched my shoulder.   
"Chelsea! No worries, it's me.", Natalie was standing next to me, still one hand on my shoulder. She rose an eyebrow before she continued talking: "You know, I had to come here because Gramps wasn't able to fetch your deliveries yesterday. So I had to come. And I guess you have fun. Maybe you should get a shower before you go and meet other people. You know, you kind of smell."   
She tried to sound super serious but she couldn't hide a small smile. I knew we couldn't be called friends or something and I knew that she was super stiff around foreigners but I wasn't that new to her so I kind of did the first thing that came to my head. I hugged her tightly and she cringed when she felt the warm mud on her clothes. "Chelsea!", she shrieked and tried to flee but I cuddled her anyway.  
"Natalie, I'm so happy we understand each other so well!", I said jokingly and she finally rescued herself. I thought that maybe she would run away as fast as she could and think about me as a creep but she actually bent down in order to collect some dirt.   
"No!", I shouted, trying to hide behind a tree.   
"Oh yes, Chelsea.", she answered, throwing the ball at me. She was very unerringly and I had everything in my hair.   
"Oh, that means revenge!", I answered and tried to hit her as well but I failed. I should have participated more often in PE classes. When she ran towards me, Natalie slipped in another puddle. I ran towards her and took her hand in order to help her get up but she only pulled my arm to her and made me fall as well. We sat in the dirt together like children and laughed out loud. I didn't know when the last time was I laughed this much but it felt fantastic.  
We fought at least for ten more minutes before she had to go back home. I smiled because she I thought I found a new friend. As unapproachable Natalie seemed to be, I had the feeling she had enjoyed this morning and I hoped we could spend more time together. Maybe she and Julia would like each other as well if they had the chance to spend more time together, despite Julia's feelings toward Elliot.

It actually was a lot later than I had expected and I didn't want to get ill so I allowed myself to take another bath since I hadn't been able to enjoy the one from the day before. I finally found time to relax and there were no interruptions this time. Only me, my bathtub and a book. An indulgence I couldn't have quite often since I usually spent most time of the day tending my crops.  
After a while, I got out of my bathroom and wondered what I'd wear for dinner at Julia's house. Since it would feel weird if I wore her clothes right after she had given them to me – It would always be strange I guess – I decided to wear my own things: A dark blue skirt and a white blouse I had brought here as my only outfit that was more formal. I wore navy stockings and simple brown boots since it still was raining. I guessed that was enough for a dinner at Mirabelle's and took my umbrella before leaving the house.


	4. Chapter 4

When I arrived at my destination, I was more than happy that I had taken my umbrella with me. The rain became heavier every second and when Julia had opened the door in front of me she had only laughed out loud. I looked like a wet dog. Worse, I even felt like one.   
"My goddess, Chelsea!", Mirabelle said when she was looking out of the kitchen in order to greet me. She rushed towards me and took my jacket. "I have got to put this on the heater I guess or it won't dry." I nodded and smiled at her.  
"Mirabelle, everything is fine. I'm just happy that my blouse is dry. If I think about it, white might not have been the right choice for a rainy day like this.", I reassured her. Mirabelle smiled and went back into the kitchen. Julia laughed at my statement and wiggled with her eyebrows.  
"We don't want to make Vaughn blush, do we?", she asked jokingly. I hadn't even thought about her cousin being present. But of course, it was the case since he lived in this house two days a week. And that day was one of those two days. On the other hand, I wasn't even quite sure if a jerk like him was even able to blush. But I wasn't here to judge so I tried to give him another chance. I heard Mirabelle calling out of the kitchen.  
"Girls, dinner's ready. Julia would you please tell Vaughn to come downstairs? Chelsea, I hope you like pasta. Oh, and I hope you do eat meat. I'm so sorry I didn't ask before, I simply assumed you did. Chelsea, you know that you have to get enough protein if you are working all day long..."  
"Mum!", Julia interrupted her. "I bet Chels is capable of nourishing herself.", she said before going up the stairs.   
"No worries, Mirabelle. I kind of eat everything and I'm sure everything you cook is simply fantastic.", I said, entering the kitchen. There was a big oaken table with a red tablecloth on top and it was surrounded by several oaken chairs. The table was already set and I felt kind of useless standing there. When I asked Mirabelle if I could do anything she just shook her head and said I should feel like home. I felt happier than ever. I couldn't quite believe how open and generous everybody on this islands was and how they already treated me like a part of their big family. Mirabelle showed me my seat and I took place.  
"Vaughn, at least try not to be rude this time, okay?", I heard Julia saying outside the kitchen. "You know, she's my best friend and you won't ruin this, okay?" I smiled at that statement. I was so happy that I had found her. When the two of them entered the room, I straightened and smiled the brightest I could, even though my hair must have looked ridiculous.   
"Hello, Vaughn!", I greeted the cowboy cheerfully. He stared at me for at least five seconds before nodding in my direction.  
"Didn't know she was here.", he said to Julia before sitting down across from Julia, who took place next to me.  
"Vaughn, you are doing the exact opposite of what I told you to do.", Julia said, rolling her eyes. She looked at me apologetically. "I'm so sorry Chels. He's kind of insufferable but deep down there,", she pointed at Vaughn's chest, "there is meant to be an actually nice person. Well, that's what the legends say." She giggled. Her cousin had been sitting there apathetically. He seemed relieved when Mirabelle told him to get the food and bring it to the table.  
"Bon apéttit!", the woman of the house wished and all of us loaded their plates with pasta and sauce. It was delicious and I didn't wait long to tell Mirabelle. She told me about it being an old family recipe. This reminded me of not knowing something about Julia that might be handy.  
"Julia? What's your favourite dish?", I asked her. She tilted her head while thinking.  
"Yogurt.", she answered. "Well if yoghurt counts as a dish. It's simply my favourite since we always have fresh milk to make some ourselves. Oh, and I hate fish. Never forget that. I guess, If you ever served me fish I would need to break up with you." When I laughed her look darkened a bit. "Oh no, that's not a joke. I couldn't take you seriously any longer if you made fish for me." I was relieved when she started smiling again. Okay, I guess I would need to take notes somewhere so I could prevent a situation like that.  
"Vaughn? When is your ship leaving tonight? I know you told me yesterday but I'm not quite sure anyway.", Mirabelle asked her nephew. I tried to compare his facial features with hers or Julia's but I couldn't find any parallels. Maybe his jawline resembled Julia's in a male way but... No, I couldn't see anything that could indicate their relationship. Vaughn, who had been shoving the food into his mouth as if he ran danger somebody would take it away from him, looked up. Those eyes again. How could somebody have eyes this extraordinary?  
"Midnight.", he answered. Mirabelle was obviously trying to trick him into a conversation with us but she had no chance. She sighed. Because I didn't want her to be sad, I tried to do my best at talking to him.  
"Where do you go?", I asked him. I was indeed interested in his answer. Where would he ship the animals to? I was slightly disappointed by the answer.  
"The city.", he replied and continued shoving food into his mouth. Wow. 'The City' how convenient. Never heard of a place like this before. "Chelsea.", I reminded myself, "You are not here to judge, you want to make friends."  
"And what do you do there? There are hardly any farms in the city.", I tried again. Maybe he would warm up a bit if we talked about his home. At least I guessed this city was his home since he was an animal dealer. What work could he possibly do in a city then?  
"I work there.", he answered without looking up from his plate. Okay, I give up. I give up here and now, there was no way I could hold up a conversation like this. I noticed Mirabelle who gave me a sorry look and I smiled at her calmly. I decided it was best to just sit there and continue eating since Vaughn managed to eat half of the pot of pasta that was meant to be for all four of us.

After dinner, Julia wanted me to stay a little longer so we went upstairs to her room. First I had thought Vaughn was following us but then I had remembered that he was living there too. What was I? Paranoid? When we entered her room, Julia wanted to show me everything immediately. It was a simple room in wood and a light blue colour that matched Julia's eyes and I asked myself if that was just her favourite colour or if she really intended her eyes and the walls to match. But why would anybody do that?   
"Do you like the colour?", she asked happily. When I nodded she smiled. "You know, I made it match my eyes so I could always take nice pictures of me in here.", she said proudly. I couldn't help but giggle at her expression. She DID match it on purpose. I could have known that it was Julia after all. "It's not that big, I know, but I got some cool things in here", she said, showing me her dressing table. Even though she had stored so many clothes at my house, her room was literally stuffed with the rest of them. I wondered if she wanted to be a fashion designer someday. Her fable for styling and her outstanding taste would make her popular, I guessed. I liked seeing her in her element when she started showing me her favourite outfits and I had to admit that I would have liked to own them as well. She showed me this red dress that would fit her perfectly. It had puffy straps and even though somebody could have worn this thirty years ago just as well, it was stunning. I could never wear something like that but the possessive look in her eyes that I had never seen before told me that she wouldn't let me try either.  
"When would you wear something like this?", I asked her honestly. A charity event maybe? With a red carpet? I didn't know why but I knew that Julia would shine brighter than any celebrity could.  
"I'm going to wear this on my first date with Elliot!", she stated. Or she would wear this gorgeous gown wherever Elliot would take her. Taro's house probably. I scolded myself immediately for that mean though. "Of course only if he'll ask me out.", Julia added.   
"So you mean... Not in a long while.", I joked. Julia stuck out her tongue before laughing with me. We laid on her bed next to each other, our feet were leaning on the wall behind it an laughed. I felt like 16 again and I enjoyed it.   
"This is kind of sad, don't you think so?", Julia asked after a while. "I mean... it's kind of sad that he won't ask me out, right? He's so shy... But I won't ask him either! The boy has to ask the girl out!" I looked at her from the side. She tried to hide her disappointment but she didn't succeed.   
"Julia, don't you think you should make up your mind about that? If a boy this temperate won't ask you out until he is one hundred percent sure you won't say no. And how could he be? I mean, Julia, you're by far the most beautiful girl I have ever met and your character is lovely as well. You could have anyone!" Julia sighed and turned around, her back leaning on the wall now. She hugged her long legs with her arms.  
"But I don't want anybody, I want Elliot! And only Elliot!", she mumbled. I sighed, getting up in order to pat her back.   
"I'm sure the two of you will be a great couple.", I said, hoping to cheer her up. She actually did raise her head and if there had never been any sorrow, she smiled at me mischievously.  
"Like you and Denny for example?", she asked, wiggling her eyebrows like she always did. Me and Denny? "Yeah, don't try to deny it. You and Denny are THE topic on this island." Me and Denny? Why would people talk about us? I had to admit that there wasn't actually much to gossip about here but me and Denny? I mean, we have talked about three times to each other. Once at my party but I talked to everybody at then because it was something the Islanders had organized for me even though they didn't know me that well. And maybe we had spent that morning together fishing. But that was fishing and nothing more. Fishing... Oh, my goddess.  
I rose before my thoughts could go any further. "You mean... Denny and I had a date?", I almost shouted at her. Julia didn't even have to answer because I was able to see the look in her eyes. "No.", I said. "This wasn't a date. Of course, it wasn't. We're friends, nothing more." Julia didn't seem to be impressed by my statement and I didn't know if I was either. We were watching the sunrise and it was kind of romantic but Denny...  
"I don't know what you think about him but I'm sure that one day we will need to buy a flowing, white dress for you. Don't worry about his pirate-look, I will make sure he will be dressed appropriately." When Julia winked at me I completely lost it. Oh, Julia... Why would you do this to me?


	5. Chapter 5

When I had left Julia's house I still wondered how she could have found out about me and Denny's meeting. Who could have seen us? I didn't look where I was going when I ran into a squeaking body.   
"Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't watch my steps!", I stuttered with wide eyes. In front of me was a person I had never seen before. I couldn't decide whether it was a little boy or a grown man, maybe something in between. He had big pink eyes and blonde hair under a purple cylinder. He wore a matching suit and he was only a few centimetres taller than me, which was quite unusual since I referred to myself as a dwarf.   
"Oh I have to apologize, I was so distracted by all those buildings. I'm afraid I might get lost if I don't look at everything in detail in order to memorize it. I'm Pierre by the way!", he said happily and reached for my hand and shook it before I could even answer. His voice was too distracting. I watched him with my mouth slightly agape I listened to his rambling. His voice was incredibly high and I wasn't even sure anymore if Pierre was a girl with a male name. "I'm here in order to find inspiration for my recipes and I want to establish a cooking contest, so make sure you save the date!" I finally was able to clear my throat and brought words out of my mouth.  
"Chelsea.", I said. "My name's Chelsea, I'm the local farmer." His smile brightened and he blushed slightly.  
"Hehe, yeah, Julia told me about that. You know, I already arrived yesterday but I didn't see you. Well, that was a lie actually. I saw you and your boyfriend fishing yesterday morning. You know, I arrived very early. You were so in love that you didn't even notice me.", he giggled. Now it was my turn to blush.  
"So... you told Julia that you had seen me with my.... 'boyfriend'?", I asked carefully. Well, that would explain many things. He smiled knowingly and patted my shoulder.  
"The two of you really are harmonic.", he stated. I blushed even harder.  
"Pierre... Let me... I... Denny...", I sighed. Why couldn't I simply say what I wanted to? I cleared my throat but I was interrupted by the rather small man in front of me.  
"Oh! Don't say no more! Is it too fresh to be shouted out like that? I understand. No worries, I won't tell anybody else. Oh! Is this what I think it is? Chelsea, I'm sorry but I have to examine those herbs. I got your back!", he tried to reassure me. He skipped past me and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Hopefully, he wouldn't confront Denny the way he did talk to me. I guessed he wouldn't like that. I sighed and went to my farm where I did nothing but taking off my clothes and jumping into my bed.

The next morning was rather unadventurous. I tended my crops. Soon I would be able to harvest for the first time and I was really excited. I chopped some trees until I was about to faint but I had to collect the wood so I could have Gannon build a barn and a coop as soon as possible. I had decided that my house wasn't priority number one since it would get warmer and warmer every day. When I went to the main island, I encountered Natalie who was holding a big parcel in her hands. She saw me and smiled, almost running towards me. What was going on with her? Wasn't she rather grumpy in the morning?  
"Chelsea!", she said excitedly. "The post boat came this morning!" Her pink her fly in all directions and her eyes were sparkling. Was there a hot postman I didn't know about? When I asked her what the matter was she shook her head and handed me the package. "Chelsea, we are living on an island which is pretty independent of the rest of the world so we don't get mail this often, which leads to the post boat only coming here one every season. Usually, this is no big deal since nobody really is reliant on messages from out there but I haven't seen a parcel this big for years! And it has your name on it!" I blinked at her twice. How could a person who's so easily excited about mail seem so cold when it came to other topics? I started smiling brightly when I read from where the package was sent from Mineral Town.  
"Come, Natalie, get Julia! We are going to open this thing together!", I almost shouted because I was so giddy with pleasure. I really wanted to know what was in there. When Julia came out of her house and greeted me with a hug, I showed her my mail and she eyed me with a knowing look.  
"Is this what you told me about the other day?", she asked and when I nodded cheerfully she laughed and took mine and Natalie's hand. "Then we have to open it up!", she said, leading us to my farm.

"So... What exactly is this?", Natalie asked when we entered my house and took place on the floor.   
"This is the rest of my belongings from home. And I know that mum packed some pretty cool stuff as well so I'm kind of excited about it.", I explained. I had told Julia about my mum's plan to send me cards and letters in order to keep me up to date about my old hometown. When I finally opened it, I got nostalgic. There were things like my old teddy bears in it but also pictures of my family and my... prom dress? Julia squeaked in delight when she saw the pink textile and took it out faster than I could process her actions.  
"Take it on!", she demanded. I rolled my eyes and smiled at her. The dress had purple ribbons all over the skirt and puffy straps and there was glitter everywhere. It was a princess' nightmare. There was a note on it. I took it and read it out loud, giggling. I recognized my mother's handwriting: "This shall remind you of that you can't make all your made mistakes disappear but it also shows you that it wasn't that bad after all. Okay, maybe I just wanted to make you and your friends laugh about how horrible your taste was when you were 16."  
"You really wore this? This is by far the worst prom dress I have ever seen.", Natalie remarked dryly. I nodded while touching the tulle.  
"I loved it when I was younger. I thought I looked like a princess in this.", I admitted. I took the pack of pictures out of the box. There were several photos of my parents and my friends. I was surprised when I had a picture of Daniel in my hands. While Julia continued examining the dress, Natalie had moved closer to me.   
"Who's this?", she asked, pointing at the photo. Daniel looked as good as he ever did. His brown hair and his light brown eyes darted into the camera. "He kind of looks like Denny.", she remarked and caught Julia's attention. The blonde took the photo out of my hands. She looked at me questioningly.  
"Oh, this is my best friend back in my hometown.", I explained. When was the last time I thought about him? "We were really close, I know him since I can remember." Julia wiggled her eyebrows.  
"Well he's a cutie, isn't he?", she asked. I blushed when I thought of how cute he had been. We had never been a couple but we had indeed shared some experiences. Not that I had any intentions of telling Julia.   
"We weren't together, Julia. We were only friends, nothing more. When he turned 20 he overtook his father's business and we could only see each other in summer.", I told her. And it was the truth.   
"So he's a company owner? How exciting!", Julia said. I chuckled at her joy.  
"Well he manages some restaurants and in summer he runs his own one. But I wouldn't refer to him as a businessman.", I enlightened her. I started unpacking the rest of my box but I couldn't stop imagining what Daniel might have been doing. He surely stole quite a few hearts in his life and I guessed he wouldn't have a cheerless life now.   
"By the way... have you guys met Pierre already? He is said to be one of the most successful gourmets of our time.", I tried to change the topic. While Julia nodded, of course, she had talked to him about me, Natalie looked rather clueless.

"What's it about this Pierre?", Natalie asked. I laughed about how Natalie would dislike him because of the way he acted like a small boy. He kind of reminded me of Elliot in that way.   
"He saw Denny and Chelsea being intimate!", Julia blurted and my face must have resembled the colour of a tomato. Natalie looked even paler than usual.   
"You were what?!", she asked with a glare of disgust. I could never be sure why she reacted the way she did and then I couldn't decide whether she was disgusted by the fact that Julia's exclamation included Denny or Denny and me being... intimate? I needed to clarify this immediately.  
"Denny and I were fishing! Nothing else! Really! This wasn't a date. This was just him teaching me how to fish. And right when the boat Pierre was on arrived, I had to pull out this very larger fish and Denny had to help me. But there was nothing indicated or anything. We are friends." Julia looked somewhat disappointed by my explanation and Natalie let out a sigh. Then something in Julia's eyes flashed.  
"Vaughn was in the same boat. Why didn't he tell me about your date with Denny?", she asked. Natalie and I looked at her in surprise. Then all of us started laughing. Should Vaughn have told Julia anything? Did she even know her cousin? Julia may have been the loudest to laugh before she sighed. "He actually is a nice person. I mean he used to be when we were younger. We actually did spend a lot of time together." I saw her sad look and wanted to cheer her up but since I had no idea about Vaughn and their relationship I couldn't think of anything to say. It was Natalie who gave the perfect impulse.  
"Julia? What do you want to do tomorrow? Do you want to throw a party?", she asked and Julia smiled at her thankfully. I was confused. A party? Again?  
"I'm not sure. Maybe we should have dinner or something. You know, all of us. You, me, Chelsea, Denny, Sabrina of course – Chelsea, you haven't met Sabrina yet, have you? – and maybe we could even invite Pierre. I have no idea how old he is but he seems to be nice." I was relieved about her suddenly returned happiness.   
"I'm sorry but... What's the occasion tomorrow?", I asked shyly, not wanting to hurt anybody. Julia and Natalie both looked at me. Julia smiled kindly.  
"Haven't I told you? My birthday is tomorrow! I'm going to be 23.", she said. I felt bad for not knowing it but as she said, she hadn't told me so there was no way I could have known. "No, no, no. Don't feel bad. It's not that big of a deal. But I think we should really have a great dinner. Too bad Vaughn can't be here. I like to have him around even though he's so grumpy. Maybe we could make something next time he's on the islands we could do something. Together I mean. I want to integrate him into our group, maybe we can help him." Julia was full of energy and I could see that she meant every word. She wanted to help him and if this was her birthday wish, I was going to help her.


	6. Chapter 6

When I thought about what to gift Julia, the first thing that came into my mind was homemade yoghurt. Since I had no cows nor any other animal to produce milk, I had to think of something else. She liked animal products in general but I couldn't provide anything like that so I tried to remember what I had gifted to my friends back in Mineral Town and I was quite happy when I figured it out. I took out the box my mother had sent to me and searched something. I had to thank her later for sending me the set of small gems I used to handcraft jewellery as presents. Of course, they weren't worth much but I tried to make them precious to the persons I gifted them. For Julia, I would go for a necklace since due to her hard work with animals I thought a bracelet might not be fitting. I looked through the collection of gems I had left. There weren't many but when I saw those three light blue stones I knew exactly that they were meant to be for my friend. I smiled at the thought of her choosing her room wall's colour so they would match her eyes. I simply knew she would love those gems around her neck. I looked for a fitting necklace and I found a simple golden one. I tried to remember where I had found this one back home but I couldn't remember. I combined the stones and the necklace and I was quite happy with the result. I hoped she would like it. 

"Chelsea! I'm so happy you are finally here!", Julia said before she let me inside the house. I actually was quite early so I wasn't sure whether she just said that to say something or because I was actually needed as a helping hand or something like that. When this stinging smell of burnt coal crawled into my nose, I knew it was the second reason. Julia shifted from one foot to the other. "You know,", she tried to explain, "I wanted to cook something and mum stays at Felicia's house so I had the kitchen all to myself and then everything went wrong." I blinked at her. When we entered the crime scene, I couldn't help but laugh.  
"Happy Birthday, Julia!", I gasped while holding my stomach. What had she done? I decided it was best to clean up this whole mess when I had an idea. "Julia?", I asked.  
"Yes, Chels? I know it looks horrible but we still have some time left and I guess we can fix..."  
"Julia.", I repeated. She looked at me and when she saw my expression she looked at me curiously. "Why don't we leave this mess and go to Pierre? I bet he would never say no to cooking a birthday dinner. He will need some time to prepare but we could tell the others easily. And in that break, we could clean up here.", I explained and Julia looked at me like I was some kind of alien.  
"Chels, you are a genius. Really. This is exactly what we are going to do. I'm going to ask Pierre and you go and tell the others. Then we meet up here and clean up this mess before my mum comes home and kills me." I laughed at Julia's euphoria and I agreed to this plan. Until I noticed something.  
"Julia. I guess we will need to ask Pierre together since I can't go and tell everybody to come to him I don't know when, without his permission." She agreed and we left Mirabelle's house as fast as possible while I was wondering about how we could get this terrible smell out of the cottage.

We were very thankful when Pierre agreed to host Julia's birthday dinner and he assured that it wasn't a problem for him to do so. When we met Natalie on our way, she said she would tell the other guests to come to the gourmet's house at a later time and I was confident that everything would be fine today. I simply wanted Julia to have a great day. After opening all the windows of the house, the smell wasn't as bad anymore as it had used to be and we actually didn't have to clean up too much because Julia handled to ruin only the oven and not the rest of the area. I wondered what she wanted to cook because I couldn't identify any of it and when I had asked her she had blushed and changed the topic. I bet it was something like Elliot's favourite but I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable on her birthday.  
"Which one do you prefer?", Julia asked while holding two dresses in her hands. One was blue and the other one was purple. Both of them were really pretty and I had to think about how she wanted to be seen by Elliot. I pointed at the blue one and smiled while pulling the box with the necklace out of my bag.  
"I think this here would be perfect for an outfit like this.", I said while handing her the jewellery. When she opened it I could see her eyes sparkle and she hugged me with a bright smile. "This is so beautiful, Chels! Thank you soo much!", she said while eyeing the necklace. "I'm going to wear this every day, Chels." She put it on and looked at her in the mirror. "You know you didn't have to gift me something? You only found out about my birthday yesterday."  
I smiled at her. "Of course I had to. I would want you to gift me something as well, you know?", I joked and she laughed before throwing me out of her room so she could get changed. I told her I would go and see how Pierre was doing so I could help him with his cooking.  
When I arrived at the small chef's house I couldn't believe what my eyes saw. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who wanted to help him and when I had passed his window, I could see Natalie standing next to Pierre. She was quite a bit taller than him and I still had no idea how old he was but there was a look in her eyes I had never seen before. What was going on with this island? Was everyone here lovestruck or something? Was that why everybody thought that Denny and I were a couple? Well, actually only Pierre and Julia had thought that and maybe Natalie but there weren't many people left who could actually be interested in our relationship. My thoughts were interrupted when a voice behind me started talking.  
"You know, I kind of wanted to go in and so on but they seem like they don't want to be interrupted.", Denny said. I turned around and agreed. Natalie seemed to be so happy helping the chef on her own so we decided it was best to stay outside for a little bit. I asked myself where Denny came from and if he had been standing there for a longer time but I didn't want the situation outside the house to become more awkward so I started talking to the fisherman.  
"How was your day?", I asked him. He shrugged and told me that he had been fishing most of the time and I wondered if he ever did something else. Then something in his eyes lit up and he looked at me excitedly.  
"Did you know that we are going to have somebody with a motorboat coming to the islands? So we can finally visit the ones more far away?", he asked and I had to admit that I had no idea. I actually had been wondering what was on the other islands around. There was a big one with an empty space. Taro had mused about holding all of our festivals there and I had seen an island with big structures that seemed to be gigantic mushrooms. I was very interested in finding out what was on there.  
"Actually, I didn't. But I always wanted to know what could be found there. Maybe I could go on some adventures.", I said, smiling. Denny looked at me from the side and smiled as well.  
"Maybe we could go fishing there.", he proposed and I laughed.  
"Can't we go fishing anywhere?", I asked and he shrugged. He raised an eyebrow as if he was thinking intensely before reaching for the back of his head.  
"I guess so.", he admitted. His bird was resting on his shoulder again and it seemed like Popper didn't like that we weren't giving him any attention.  
"POPPER! POPPER!", he cawed and I laughed. The sound of the bird must have arrived in Pierre's ear as well because only some seconds later the small chef had opened the door and scolded us for waiting outside instead of helping him. I wanted to say something about Natalie preferring to work with him alone but I didn't want to provoke her since I still didn't know how to handle her and what I could say about or to her and what I shouldn't. 

It didn't take long and all the other young islanders had arrived at Pierre's and the gourmet was quite happy with his role as a host and Julia seemed relieved that he had taken all the responsibility off her shoulders. The food was so delicious that all of us ate way too much and Pierre seemed kind of annoyed when nobody really could manage to eat the chocolate cake he had made as dessert. Denny didn't want him to be sad so he volunteered and ate a large piece. Afterwards, he looked really pale – Well as pale as a tanned person like Denny could look – and he had to excuse himself before disappearing for a longer time. Natalie hadn't left Pierre's side, which wasn't unnoticed by Julia and me, and Julia finally had her Elliot for her own. It had been almost midnight when somebody knocked on the door. When Pierre opened it, there was a small girl with long black hair and a purple and pink outfit. She wore big glasses and she had a bow tied in her hair. This must have been Sabrina. She hurried to Julia and hugged her, apologizing for her late appearance.  
"Julia, I'm so sorry but my father wouldn't let me come here because we had a dinner with a client and he didn't even let me go to you and tell you. So I waited until the client went to the hotel and father went to bed and I kind of sneaked out...", she stopped when she noticed me. A kind smile appeared on her face. "You must be Chelsea.", she said and bowed. I wasn't quite sure what to think about the fact that she had just bowed before me but I didn't question it either.  
"Yes, I'm Chelsea. And you must be Sabrina. What a pleasure to finally meet you, too bad we couldn't see each other earlier. Julia has told me quite a lot about you.", I said. Sabrina looked at her feet before smiling at me shyly.  
"Well, there isn't that much to tell, I guess since I don't come out of the mansion often. I have to do paperwork for my father's company and the mines will be busy this season. But I want to go out more. This is kind of my resolution for this year.", she explained. Julia watched her with a look of sorrow in her eyes.  
"Sabrina, I sure am very happy that you handled to come here but do you really think sneaking out was a good idea? Your father wouldn't like that, I guess.", she asked. Sabrina looked like she was trying to find out whether she should have stayed at home or not. Then she shook her head and smiled.  
"As I said: This is my new year's resolution. I want to be young and happy. I don't want to sit in this old house any longer and I finally want to meet some people. Julia, you are my only friend and even we don't see each other often." She didn't sound as convinced as she may wanted to sound but I felt sympathy for the shy girl from the mansion. Maybe we could be friends. I felt the urge to help her. Didn't I leave my hometown in order to find myself and be young and happy myself?  
The dinner was a big success and everyone was happy. Even Denny had managed to come out of the bathroom some minutes after Sabrina had appeared and Julia might have had the best evening for a long time if I could have trusted her big, bright smile. Her cheeks were flushed and so were Elliot's. She would need to thank Pierre later for making Natalie being interested enough in him so she would forget completely about her brother. I wondered if there was something I didn't know about the pink haired girl and if it really was possible that she had a thing for small, blonde gourmets that looked younger than they were. Or did he? I still had no idea how old Pierre was and I really hoped for Natalie that he wasn't as old as he seemed to be.


	7. Chapter 7

The last week had passed quite fast and I had been able to increase the size of my field. I even harvested my first turnips even though I was quite disappointed when I saw how large... or rather small they were. Even though I did tend them daily and I gave them all my love, I hadn't been able to raise crops one could be proud of. The longer I had looked at them, the more pathetic I had found them to be. Nevertheless, I decided it would be best to concentrate on crops since fishing wasn't as profitable. I actually hadn't been fishing with Denny since our first meeting and I hadn't been able to catch more than maybe two fish a day. Because I had been quite diligent I had almost collected enough wood for my barn. Now the only thing missing was money but I was positive that I could handle this as well. At the end of spring, my farm would be expanded and I was very happy and proud. When I had shipped everything I had harvested or collected, I saw Julia running towards me, her cousin was following her. She looked ecstatic and waved heavily. Vaughn, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here on my farm. Well, he actually looked like he prefered anything over having to stay on these islands.  
"Chels! Look at this!", Julia said, pointing at a basket in her hands. It was filled with food and plates and several bottles. "We are going to go to the Meadows and we are going to have a picknick. No worries. Mum made the food, I'm just the consumer.", she explained. In the last week, Kurt had arrived on the islands with his motorboat and he was willing to ship us to the other islands around. The Meadows were near so the islanders decided that it would be best to discover this one first.  
"Oh, you are inviting me? How nice. I actually just finished today's work so I'm free.", I said. I smiled at the two of them brightly. While Julia skipped forward in Kurt's direction, I heard Vaughn mumble something. As if he just remembered that I was present, he nodded in my direction, while tilting his hat. "She's so full of energy.", I said, pointing at his cousin. Vaughn sighed and nodded again. He made a gesture as if he wanted me to follow him before he went after her.   
When we arrived on the Meadows, Julia and I started unpacking the basket Mirabelle had packed. I noticed Vaughn leaving the small group of ours and looked after him. He actually went on the other side of the island and stared down to the water. I couldn't help but watch him. He looked so... unapproachable yet so lonely. I felt the urge to go to him and pat him on the shoulders but I didn't think he would like that so I decided it was best to help Julia. My friend sighed.  
"I don't get it. I mean, he did have a hard time, yes. But does he need to be like this? It would be so much easier if he would talk more. I know he can." she continued unpacking everything. "Vaughn?", she shouted at him and he turned around. He went straight towards us and sat down next to me on the blanket. Well actually we sat in a triangle but I think we have never been this close and I managed to catch the sight of his eyes.   
"Are you wearing contacts?", I asked bluntly. Vaughn's eyes widened for a second before he looked at me irritated.   
"Why should I?", he asked. I knew this wasn't a real question but I couldn't help but answer.  
"Well, they are so special. Well special in a pretty way, you know? I have never seen a colour in someone's eyes before.", I managed to say everything I had thought and I regretted it immediately. At the same time, I blushed because I complimented Vaughn on his eyes and it seemed like crazy to do so. He rose an eyebrow before looking away and shrugging.  
"Thank you.", he murmured. Wait. What? Did he just thank me for acting like a total idiot? While I didn't know what to do I noticed that Julia had been watching us. She smirked while unpacking a sandwich. I thought it was best to just ignore what had happened and grabbed another one. Vaughn looked inside the box I spotted a disgusted look on his face.   
"Julia, why would you pack so many carrots?", he asked. Julia put her sandwich to the side and took a carrot. She held it directly in front of his face.  
"Because I thought you would be old enough now to finally eat vegetables.", she said, wiggling her eyebrows. Vaughn sighed before trying to escape the carrot Julia wanted to stick in his mouth. I wanted to laugh at the view, the tall, strong Vaughn being intimidated by a carrot but I didn't want him to suffer.  
"Julia.", I said, trying to gain her attention. She looked at me and smiled mischievously.   
"Chels, don't you think Vaughn should at least try one?", she asked and I didn't exactly know what to answer. Sure, he could have simply tried it but he really seemed like he went through hell when he saw the orange thing in front of his face. Then I caught sight of something that made me smile.  
"Well, I guess it would only be fair if the two of you made a deal. Vaughn has to eat the carrot when you...", my hand wandered into the basket. "...go on and eat this salmon sandwich.", I said. I heard Vaughn sighing out in relieve next to me and I met his gaze. He looked at me grateful when Julia frowned.   
"This is not fair, Chels. You know that I hate fish.", she stated and pouted. "But Vaughn is 26 now and he really should eat his carrots." I laughed.  
"You hypocrite. If you want Vaughn to eat the carrot, you have to eat this.", I said, pointing at the fish she had hidden in the basket while she had unpacked everything else. Julia sighed. 26, huh? I eyed the cowboy next to me. I had thought that he was a little bit older than me but four years? I reached for the carrot in Julia's hand and took it away from before Vaughn's eyes. He blinked and followed my hand with his eyes. I bit into the carrot and he looked disgusted. I ate it quickly and Vaughn laid down on the blanket. He put his hat over his eyes and soon he seemed to relax. Did he sleep? Julia and I watched him before a thought came into my mind.  
"Soo... you and Elliot, huh?", I asked. She blushed again and I knew that something had happened. I tilted my head and tried to raise an eyebrow like she always did but I simply couldn't do it. "Did you two kiss?", I asked. Julia blushed even more but she shook her head.  
"No, of course not.", she said and I heard her sad undertone. I patted her shoulder but she had already found her smile again. "What about Denny?", she asked and I didn't know what to say. I shrugged and I checked if Vaughn was listening. I said his name twice but he didn't react. I already knew that he was quite good at zoning out when Julia talked but did he really manage to sleep? He kind of looked so peaceful the way he lay there. His hair shined bright in the sun and I felt the urge to touch it.  
"Huhu... Chels... Don't do this to me. I asked you about Denny so please don't ignore me. I hate being ignored.", she complained. I shook my head in surprise because I didn't know what came over me to stare at Vaughn like this.   
"I can't really say anything about Denny since we haven't spent that much time together since we went fishing. Last time we really had a conversation was on your birthday but he apologized for that. He's really busy.", I said. He had really been at my door the other day and said sorry for being on his boat so often but there were too many fish in the water, he had said. I really appreciated his excuse even though it hadn't been necessary at all. Julia's face had this mischievous smile all over it but this time it wasn't for me. She rose an eyebrow and took the Stetson from his face. He tried to get it back but even I was surprised by Julia's speed. She had hooked the hat on her fingers and hid it behind her back.  
"If you try to get it back, I'm going to sit on it. So you have to deal with it.", she said and I was curious to see what she was about to do. Vaughn had backend when she threatened to destroy his hat and he sat there, trying to stay calm but I could see that it was very hard for him. I realized that it was the first time I was able to see his face without the hat on it and it was even more gorgeous. His eyes were actually brighter and he had full eyelashes. They were a dark grey and I still couldn't decide whether he dyed them or not. But why would he? He really didn't seem like a person who was that interested in his looks.  
"So, Vaughn.", Julia cleared her throat. "You live in the city, don't you?", she asked and he nodded in return. He grabbed a bottle of water out of the basket and took a sip. "Do you have a girlfriend there?", she asked bluntly and he looked like he almost choked.   
"Why do you want to know this?", he asked, eyeing his cousin. She laughed and I was surprised when he actually started talking. "Nothing that would be interesting to you at least.", he said. Julia looked at him as if he had just told her that he liked babies for breakfast.  
"So you are dating somebody?", she asked and I kind of felt where this was going. He rolled his eyes and tried taking his hat again but Julia dodged his hand. "Are you?", she asked again. Vaughn sighed.  
"No, I'm not seeing anyone. Julia. Could you please give me back my hat?", he asked and looked at his cousin pleadingly. Well as pleadingly as he was able to look with his rather dark appearance.  
"That's all I wanted to know.", said Julia and handed him his Stetson. He sighed and stood up. Julia reached for his hand, wanting him to sit down again but he refused. "Vaughn? Please try to warm up at least towards me and Chelsea. You know, she doesn't talk much but she's actually quite nice. And I'm family after all." I didn't talk much? I tried to protest but I hadn't got a chance because Julia continued talking. "We just want to help you." I was kind of surprised when he actually nodded and I could see the smallest hint of a smile on his face.   
"Appreciate that.", he said before leaving in Kirk's direction.  
"Make sure Kirk comes back to fetch us!", Julia shouted at him and I giggled. Vaughn nodded and waved a small goodbye.  
When we were packing up everything, I noticed that Julia seemed kind of relieved. She was humming and I smiled at her again gained enthusiasm. Vaughn had been nice today. Well, he didn't do much but it felt like he was a pleasant person to spend time with. His voice had this raspy undertone but the sound of it was very likeable once he talked.  
"His birthday had been on the third of spring, actually.", Julia suddenly said. "I forgot about it since everything was so exciting with you here and it was the day we threw that party for you. I know, he wasn't even here that day but I could have phoned him at least... Maybe we should gift him something. Not for his birthday that was over a week ago, but...", she interrupted herself in with her ideas. "We are going to cook for him! He loves porridge so you do have to make him some because I can't and if Mirabelle cooks it wouldn't be something special. So bring him porridge tomorrow!", she commanded and I couldn't help but nod in agreement even though I had no idea of how to do porridge.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up really early in the morning. This was actually convenient since I really needed to figure out how to make porridge. I couldn't mess this up even though I wasn't quite sure why I did this. It was Julia's idea after all. Goddess, he was her cousin after all! I had bought much milk since I didn't have any cows yet and Chen was really happy he could sell some of his rice. Porridge... Porridge... I didn't have any recipes in my house but I remembered that my grandmother always used to make porridge for me when I was younger. There were hardly any more ingredients than milk and rice in it, how hard could it possibly be? I grabbed some pots out of my shelf and started pouring everything together. Would I need to cook the rice first? How long will I need to boil the milk? Is the milk even allowed to boil? How could I even do this? I wanted to phone mum really bad but I couldn't because nobody seemed to have a phone on this island. A letter wouldn't even arrive in Mineral Town in two weeks, so I really had to figure it out myself. I sighed before making three pots of different mixtures. The first one had this really slimy consistency that made me shiver because it felt so strange in my mouth. The second one had developed a weird smell and tasted like carton or something. I didn't even try the third one. It was black. It was simply burnt and I felt horrible. I lived on my own and I wasn't even able to cook porridge. I decided it was best to stop trying for a second and went outside in order to harvest some crops and water the rest of them. I was even able to harvest my first potatoes so I planted new ones. I could afford some fertilizer and I tried to tend my plants as good as possible.   
It had taken another two hours of cooing porridge before I finally made not only an edible but also a very delicious one. It tasted exactly like grandma's. Now I could finally go and see Vaughn an give it to him. I looked at me in the mirror and thought about changing but then I remembered that it was just Vaughn I was going to visit and that he probably wouldn't even look at me. I shrugged before taking the hot bowl of porridge and leaving my farm. I was kind of excited to see his excited face when he would taste his favourite food.

"Vaughn! Vaughn!", I shouted while entering the door. I was so unbelievably happy that I finally did it. "I found it!", I said before placing the bowl in front of him. He was sitting at his desk as usual and I ignored the fact that he had just been sitting there and watched me emotionless. Then he pointed at the porridge and asked what it was. When he eyed it closely, I could see a small smile on his face. It was almost invisible but it was enough for me to be satisfied. Sure, it wasn't as big and bright as I hoped it to be but I guessed that Vaughn wasn't the person to laugh much and often. Which wasn't exactly bad because if he would laugh one day, I would know that it was genuine. "Porridge?", he had asked sceptically and rose his eyebrows. He looked directly into my eyes and I blushed a little bit. Amethyst eyes. Beautiful. "Chelsea, don't get caught in your thoughts.", I scolded myself.   
"It's my grandma's recipe and I finally managed to do it. Vaughn! You gotta try, I know porridge is your favourite.", I explained. He shrugged before looking back at me.  
"How do you know that?", he asked even though I was sure he knew the answer. This was kind of embarrassing and I wanted this situation to resolve as quickly as possible. I shifted from one foot to the other and crossed my arms over my chest. When he finally took the spoon I almost burst in nervousness. He closed his eyes when he finally tried it and I could see him blush. Well, at least I thought I would since he hid his face behind his hat again. I smiled at him brightly.  
"You can have it of course.", I said joyfully and he looked at me again. This time I could see his smile and my heart jumped a bit when I noticed it.   
"I really like this. Thank you.", he said it more like a fact but I could have squeaked because I was so relieved and happy. He continued eating and I decided it was best to just leave. I waved him goodbye when he looked up again. He had still this small smile on his fest. I would need to make porridge more often.

When I went to the beach, I met Denny who was on his way to go fishing as well. He smiled at me brightly like he always did and he invited me to come with him and I agreed immediately. I needed to catch some fish anyway and when he was there it was always a lot easier. We took his boat and carried it to the beach because he insisted on us taking it. He said the fishes were a little shy today, so I accepted his offer. It sounded exciting to go fishing on a boat.

"Fishing on a boat is about the same as when you're on land. But you have to react faster because we are moving all the time. And you have to keep balanced and stay calm. Don't fall into the water. It's cold, you know?", he explained while rowing further and further away from the island. He insisted on being the only one to row so I could relax a little bit and watch the scenery. It was quite warm for spring but not too hot to be under the sun without any kind of protection. When we had reached a certain distance, he stopped and we moved back and forth slowly. He handed me my fishing rod and he took out his own one.  
"It's new. I was finally able to afford it because the last week was quite profitable.", he said proudly and I smiled. We started fishing next to each other and we were quiet until I managed to catch a fish. He wanted to help me pull it out at first, but I signalled that I was able to do it on my own. Because it felt very strange to just sit there and stare into the ocean, I wanted to start a conversation.  
"So... What did you do today?", I asked in order to do a little bit of small talk. Denny laughed and reached for the back of his head. He never had Popper with him when he spent time with me, I noticed.  
"I went fishing earlier today. Then I went to the diner and had lunch. Well and then I met you and now we're here.", he said shortly.  
"And why don't you ever bring Popper with you?", I asked curiously and I caught him blushing. He cleared his throat and looked away hectically.   
"You know, he's kind of annoying when I'm with other people. This bird is a diva. He talks all the time and he doesn't like when I'm not paying attention to him.", he reached for the back of his head again and blushed heavier. "And when I'm with you, I can't pay any attention to this damn bird." I blinked twice before smiling at him. How sweet he was. I continued to fish while responding.  
"You don't need to ignore Popper because of me, you know? You are a really great friend.", I said happily and I heard him clear his throat.  
"Yeah. Haha, yeah, I guess I am.", he said but I felt a certain tension coming from him. I patted his arm and he looked away before asking me what I had done this day before meeting him.  
"Well, I kind of accomplished the mission of making porridge. It wasn't for me actually, it was for Vaughn. You know he likes this stuff and his birthday was last week and Julia forgot about it so I helped her brightening up his day.", I told him joyfully. It really had been a good day. "I also harvested my first potatoes and planted some. You know, in next week Gannon maybe able to build my barn." Denny had looked a little bit absent so I waved my hand in front of his face. He blinked before shaking his head slightly.  
"So... Vaughn, huh?", he asked, puffing up his cheeks. He concentrated on fishing again. "He seems nice. Not wordy nor happy but nice. I guess he would never harm anyone, not even a fly.", he said abruptly and I was quite surprised by his sudden change of mood. I nodded.  
"I bet he wouldn't. But we are not here to talk about Julia's cousin, aren't we? We have some fish to catch.", I said in order to make him relax a bit. And he actually did what made me happy.  
It was when a really big fish bit into the bait on my fishing rod that Denny didn't handle to help me for the first time. I lost my balance and struggled to stay inside the boat. Denny wasn't able to keep the boat straight so it flipped and the both of us landed in the water. Whoa, it really was cold. I was a good swimmer so it actually wasn't a problem for me to be in the water and when Denny had noticed that, he turned around the boat again and put his fishing rod inside of it again. Then he reached for mine and put it back there as well before splashing some water on my face.  
"Denny!", I squeaked and tried to defend myself but he continued so I started fighting back. I ignored the fact that I was wearing my clothes and they were dragging me down a little bit and so I tried to press myself up on his shoulders so my weight would put him under water. He didn't even move a centimetre. Instead, he grabbed my waist. It was just a second he did that but I blushed and he laughed mischievously before throwing me over himself into the water. When I came up again, I protested but his laughter was contagious. We spent some time splashing in the water before the both of us were tired. He helped me get into the boat and this time the both of us had to row a little bit. 

When we arrived back on the island we were greeted by Julia who enjoyed some hours in the sun. She had a look on her face I had never seen before but when she saw us, her jaw dropped. I looked down at myself and blushed in embarrassment. My clothes were sticking to my body like second skin. Denny had taken off his shirt because of the same reason and I had to admit that I didn't dislike that. When he said goodbye, Julia started giggling heavily and I noticed that Vaughn was coming down to the beach as well. He looked back and forth between me and Julia before sighing and shaking his head. Then his eyes stuck on my outfit and I blushed furiously. He rose an eyebrow and I literally could see all those questions in his head. It was Denny who made things clear to him when he came out of his hut, still shirtless and hung his wet laundry on a clothesline.  
"Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea...", Julia muttered while laughing even louder. "What are we going to do with you if you continue playing with his feelings?", she asked and I had no idea what she was talking about. When I expressed that, she turned around to her cousin and punched his arm slightly.  
"Vaughn? Do you agree that there is no way one could sense that Denny is fond of her?", she asked and I didn't know what to do nor what to say. I tried stumbling something but I was interrupted by a pair of amethyst eyes that gazed on me.  
"That fisherman looks like he has got other problems.", he said shortly and pointed at something behind me. Denny indeed looked busy with Popper sitting on his head, refusing to go down and picking his owner.


	9. Chapter 9

It had taken aproximately 10 days until Gannon could build my barn. It was the last week of spring and I was curious about how my work would change in summer. The carpenter promised that it would only take on day for him to construct the whole building so I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling of my house. It was 5:45 am and I really hoped that Gannon would knock on my door at 6 am. But that would have meant that he had worked all night long and I would be devestated if that really was the case. I got up and ruffled my hair with my hand. I decided to cook some porridge since it was the only dish I was able to do now and I still had some ingredients left from when I cooked it the first time. "For Vaughn.", I thought and while I was cooking I reminded that we haven't really talked since that day when he saw Denny and me completely soaked on the beach. He had been on the island last week as well but when I saw him he was either working or seemed to be extra grumpy. Propably his work had been extra hard and much that last week. I shook my head. Where were my thoughts? At least I had a reason to think about him, since I was cooking his favourite dish right now.

Gannon had finished the barn when I had already watered and fertilized my crops so I had enough time to admire his work. It wasn't big but there was enough space to fit four cows in, which was a good size to begin with. It was out of wood and seemed to be very solid. More solid than my house for sure. When would I be able to afford that upgrade? Propably I would need to build a coop first and soon it would be summer and who needed a rain-proof roof anyway? Not me, I guessed. He had patted my shoulders before he went back home and I wondered if he really worked all night long because there were dark shadows under his eyes and when I had left my house in the morning in order to work on my field, he had already been working. I felt the urge to gift him something but what would a man like Gannon want to have? I would need to talk to Eliza soon.  
My next stop was Mirabelle's shop. It was sunday so I wasn't surprised when Vaughn's desk was empty. The woman of the house greeted me heartily and something in her eyes told me that something was about to happen. And when I saw what was about to happen, I almost cried of happiness. She showed me a cow and it was the most beautiful cow I had ever seen. As if she had jumped out of a painting. She wasn't black and white but she had a wonderful hazel colour. She was completely brown except a white spot around her left eye.   
"Chelsea, I had Vaughn bring it here last week because I knew you would handle to build a coop here. Good thing he's not a big talker, it would have messed everything up if he had told you. Do you accept her as a present?", Mirabelle asked and my eyes watered. I couldn't say anything because I feared that I would actually break out in tears. I nodded and hugged her. When she laughed her chest was pressed into my face but I didn't mind. It was like something clicked when I felt her bust against my cheeks that reminded me of when the last time was when somebody had hugged me as familiar as Mirabelle did it now.  
"Thank you", I sobbed before I felt something like a dam breaking inside of me and I started crying. "Thank you so much.", I repeated and Mirabelle stroked my back. She tried to sooth me but I simply couldn't stop.   
"You haven't talked to your parents in a long time, haven't you?", she asked and I nodded against her chest. She sighed. "You should really have the chance to see them, you know? Or at least if you had more chances to send and receive letters than once a month by the postboat." Her voice was sad. I guessed she was thinking about Julia beeing in a situation like that. I looked up at her and tried to smile. Then she blinked and started smiling. "Once a week would be an improvement, wouldn't it?", she asked and I nodded again. I decided it was best not to talk or I would continue crying. Mirabelle tilted her head and smiled genuinely. "Maybe I can talk to Vaughn and make him deliver your letters to your parents when he's in Mineral Town.", she said and my eyes widened.

"Vaughn delivers animals to Mineral Town as well?", I asked in surprise. So he knew my mum? I didn't know why but that information hit me. He could help me. And I bet he cared little enough about taking letters with him or not to help me.   
"That would be really nice.", I said and I thought about how nice it would be to write letters to my parents every week. Then I felt a warm snout on my arm and looked at my cown who was nuzzling me. "You need a name!", I realized and tilted my head while watching her. All sadness was washed off from me and I smiled. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and I was captured. "Berta.", I said. "Your name is Berta.", I stated and Mirabelle nodded in approvement.  
"That's a nice name.", she said and led me through the gate. I had Berta on a rope and the two of us troted back to my farm. I gave her fodder and brushed her. She seemed to like her new home even though she looked kind of lonely. I would need to buy a second cow soon so she could have a friend. I would treat her like my own child.   
It was afternoon when I left my barn again and I decided it was a good time to finally visit the island with the giant mushrooms on it. I went to Kirk and asked him to take me there and he agreed happily. He stated that he had never been there as well but that he had always wanted to go there as well.  
The forest that I could have seen from far away turned out to be a jungle. There were huge trees everywhere and there were plenty of mushroom. I picked some of them up, maybe I could learn another recipe. Even if not, I needed every bit of extra income I could get. I waved Kirk goodbye, he wouldn't leave his boat as usual. I wondered if he ever came down or if he slept on that boat. I was surprised to see some kind of path leading into the forest. My mother always used to scold me when I went into the forest when I was a kid but I always have had a thing for the raw nature that could be found there. I followed the path further and further when suddenly my feet were swept off the ground. I was pulled up in the air and I shrieked without noticing it. I dangled in the air and my head was hovering two meters above the ground. What was happening? When I heard footsteps I sighed in relieve.  
"Kirk, I'm so happy you finally got off the boat. Can you believe that there are actually still traps on this island? How old do you think are they?", I tried to joke but my voice was stuck in my throat when I saw a stranger before my eyes. He was very tanned and his hair stood in all directions. He had paint in his face and moved like a lion would while hunting it's prey.   
"No see Kirk. Me Shea. Me make traps. Me hungry.", he grunted while reaching for my hair. WHAT DID HE SAY?! HE WANTED TO EAT ME?! Was is really punished for not listening to my mother ten years after she had told me not to go into forrests, the last time?  
"No! Please don't eat me! I'm sure I'm not even tasty. I'm Chelsea, actually. Yes, Chelsea, you don't eat Chelseas, you know?", I said, holding out my hand which felt quite odd since I was hanging there, wrong way round. He tilted his head before licking my arm. I shrieked again before pulling my hand away. He looked at me curious and took out a knife, licking his lips. It was over. Now it was over. I would end up as a dinner and I wouldn't even have the chance to find out if I was tasty. To my relieve, he turned around and cut a rope that was coiled on the tree next to me. I felt the something loosen and before I could cry out in pain because I fell to the floor, I felt two strong arms catching me. I looked up and saw those dark brown eyes focusing me. I blushed when I noticed how little the man – Shea? – wore since I was right next to his bare, muscular chest. 

"Me Shea. What you?", he asked before dropping me to the floor. I shook my head and got up quickly.  
"I'm Chelsea. How are you?", I asked. He didn't give an answer but nodded.   
"I never see a Chelsea before. You look like I. But different.", he said and shaking his head. "Don't know what to do. Must go back. Wada waits.", he stated before dissappearing in the jungle. Was I dreaming or did that really happen? I felt the urge to follow him but I couldn't find him so I decided to go back to Kirk and drive home as quickly as possible.   
"Chelsea, Chels!", I heard somebody shouting when I arrived back on the main island. Well it wasn't simply anybody but Julia, who was very excited. I couldn't sort the emotion in her face. Her ponytail was flipping from side to side and she grabbed my hand. She didn't pull me to the animal shop but she pushed me up to my farmland. There she opened my door and sat down on my bad. She shook her head in disbelieve. When she looked up and saw my worried face, she started laughing hysterically. What had happened?  
"Julia...", I started but she interrupted me immediately.  
"Chels, you won't believe me. I just phoned Vaughn and told him that you finally got your cow. And you know, he isn't the most excited person and he is always slightly annoyed but I literally froze when I heard his voice. I have never heard him being this annoyed and there was something als in his voice I had never heard before. But do you know what happened then?", she asked and obviously I didn't know what had happened. I shook my head and she continued.  
"I could hear somebody in his background. It wasn't simply somebody but it was a WOMAN, Chels! He was with a girl! And it sounded like I interrupted something because... Oh man I can't repeat what she said. Oh my god, this is so funny.", she laughed even louder while falling down onto my bed. "Chels, she called him 'Honey'. 'Honey', Chels! And she wanted him finish what they had started! Chels do you believe it? I think I just interrupted my cousin... doing it!"  
If I had held something in my hands, I propably would have dropped it. I blushed furiously because I immediately started imagining the picture. There was only one problem: My imagination was way too accurate and I didn't know why I was able think of something like that.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers,  
> I am very happy that you click on this story that often and you might wonder why I'm not doing any authors notes and that's because I am stressed out right now :D I'm stuck in the preparation for my final exams and I'm double uploading this story and so I didn't feel like writing much about it in the ANs. I try to do this more often now because I don't want you guys to think that I'm anywhere near ungrateful or anything, I simply didn't find much time to write chapters and big authors notes because I wasn't quite sure if anybody on this forum would read the story at all because I'm new here :) Let me know what you think about this story so far!

Ever since I had that conversation with Julia, I couldn't help but feel trapped in my memories. I remembered so many stories, I thought I wouldn't think about in a long time. How I always have had to get up at 4 am before I went to school because Mineral Town was so far away from any form of civilization. How I always had sat next to Daniel on the bus and how he always had tried to wake me up. I remembered how Daniel and I had gone to prom together and how we had run away as soon as it had started because we had noticed how boring it had been. I blushed when other memories came to my mind and I shook my head. I really needed to write a letter to him. And since Vaughn would arrive the next day, I did. I was sure, he would agree on taking them with him when he would leave. I sat down at my desk and started writing, even though I wasn't quite sure what to say.  
"Dear Daniel,", I started but I crushed the paper again and took a new one. That sounded way too formal. I sighed and took another sheet. "Hey, Daniel.", yes, that was better.  
"It has been quite some time since we last talked and I have to say that I miss you. I'm sure you are doing fine with your restaurants and I'm sure you are having a good time. I'm on the Sunshine Islands now and finally have started my own farm. You should come and visit me as soon as possible! I actually have no idea where you are right now so I make sure Vaughn will give this letter to your parents. Well, you don't even know who Vaughn is. I actually don't know either, he's an... acquaintance. He's my best friend's cousin and an animal dealer. He's kind of grumpy and quiet but I bet he has a good heart. Whatever, I wanted to write to you because it felt unfair not to do so. You have always been my best buddy and I really want to see you again. Maybe it is as it had been before I moved away and you come back to your parent's house in summer. And summer will start next week so you will be able to receive this letter soon. Let me know when you have! So think about this letter as an invitation and come as soon as possible. I bet you could be friends with Denny, he's kind of exactly like you and the two of you even look alike.  
Make sure to answer as soon as you can!Yours, Chelsea"  
I put the pen away and looked at the letter. I sighed before starting to write the same letter again, my pen had spilt some ink and my handwriting was shaky. I thought about how rarely I wrote something, thus it felt quite strange to write so much at once. I stood up and looked into my fridge and noticed that it was empty. Not the way fridges are usually 'empty' when you only have some butter and toast left, but empty empty. There was literally nothing edible in it so I either needed to buy something or go fishing. My crops weren't ready and I had already sold Berta's milk. She didn't give much but a small bottle every day. I left my house. I didn't feel like going to the diner and I didn't explore mushroom island the way I wanted so I decided to go and see Kirk and go there by boat with him. I had let Berta out of the barn for the first time so she could graze and so I needed to be back before the sun would set.  
When I arrived on the island, I felt the urge to look for the boy but on the other hand, I couldn't be quite sure if he was as hungry as me. I even felt my mouth water when I saw all the mushrooms and I started to collect some of them. I filled my backpack and I turned towards the jungle. Maybe I was able to find some herbs there. It didn't take long for me to find Shea. I hid behind a tree and watched him. He was hunting a wild boar and when he reached back with his spear and was about to throw it, I couldn't help but cry out. I didn't want that animal to die in front of my eyes and when it heard the sound, it turned around and ran away. Shea immediately jumped towards my direction and I wasn't able to hide completely. When he had reached me, he had an angry look on his face but it softened as soon as he recognized me.  
"Chelsea.", he said and poked my cheek. I was surprised by his touch and backend a little. He must have assumed that I was scared because he put his hands behind his back as fast as he could. I laughed and patted his shoulder. "Chelsea, you meet Wada now.", he said and took my hand. I blushed a little because I noticed once again how little he was wearing. The only thing that prevented him from showing off his whole body was this small piece of animal skin around his pelvis.  
"Where are we going to meet Wada? And who is Wada anyway?", I asked and again I felt this nervousness rising in my body. I could run away if I had to. I could run away before they ate me alive. But how could I ever be afraid of somebody as cute as Shea? He looked like a loyal puppy after all.   
"Wada in tower.", he said while following a small path into the jungle. He suddenly stopped walking and turned around to me, a questioned look on his face. "What I tell Wada? I go hunting and come back with a Chelsea?", he asked and I shrugged. I felt panic rising in my body. Wada would eat me. Wada would eat me, I was one hundred percent sure. I tried to get out of his grip but he was too strong. He looked at me again. "What you doing?", he asked.  
"Well, I don't really know if it may be dangerous to follow you into the dark deep jungle, you know?", I tried to convince him to let me go. He smiled and I saw that there was one part of his canine tooth missing. It made his smile look perfectly wild.   
"You not in danger. Shea watch out.", he expressed in his broken language and I tried to believe him. Was Wada his father? His chief? Who was Wada and why did I have to go and meet him? I didn't say anything because I simply wanted this weird situation to resolve and so I decided to follow him no matter what. When we arrived at a tent, we stopped and Shea opened the entrance so we could enter. There was a tall man inside, he was sitting next to a small fire and he had a pipe stuck between his teeth. He was slender and was covered by animal skin as well. His hair was black and was held back by a hairband out of... bones? Oh my god. On his forehead, there was a skull attached and I really wanted to run away but Shea was right behind me. I didn't want to die. I couldn't die now. I had so much to...  
"So you are Chelsea?", he asked surprisingly fluently and I calmed down for a moment. I smiled at him and nodded. "You have to excuse my son for being rough if he was because he grew up all alone here.", he explained and I looked at Shea from the side who looked like he did something wrong.  
"No, no!", I tried to reassure him. "Shea hasn't done any mistakes and I was simply nervous about following him just like that." I didn't add the fact that I was afraid of being eaten alive because I didn't want to give him any ideas.   
"I'm Wada.", he said and took a deep puff from his pipe. There was white fume coming out of it and it smelled very sweet. I assumed he was smoking some herbs from the jungle. He pointed at the pile of hay next to him and Shea sat down. I decided to sit down as well and I felt the warmth of the fire on my face. When my stomach grumbled, Shea looked at me worried before jumping up again.  
"Shea get food! Chelsea hunger!", he said and ran out of the tent. I smiled and Wada laughed. He started coughing and I figured he smoked his mixture of herbs regularly. Wada and I had a good conversation actually and I had to promise that I would bring some things from Chen's shop at some time. When Shea got back, he had some large fish in his hands and before I could even look, he had put it on a stick and hung it over the fire pit.  
It actually tasted better than I had expected even though it was kind of dry without any kind of sauce. I couldn't finish the whole meal so I gave it to Shea, who was sitting next to me and devoured his food twice as fast as me. Wada had been sitting there silently while Shea tried to show off his skills in balancing a stick on top of his head. We laughed a lot at that evening and when everybody had finished his dinner, Wada handed me his pipe. I didn't want to decline because it seemed impolite to do so. I had never smoked anything so I had no idea how to do it. I simply took the mouthpiece and sucked. I accidentally inhaled quite a lot of the mixture and coughed hard. I watched Shea and Wada sharing the pipe as well and I felt the bond between the two of them. Wada had told me that he actually had adopted Shea when he was very young and that both of them were members of a tribe of hunters. It was very exciting to listen to them. I felt a dizziness in my head as soon as I tried to stand up. What did Wada smoke all day long, anyway? I had learned about peace pipes quite some time ago but I never thought that they were this strong. It felt like my head was extra heavy and I couldn't move my limbs as certain as usually.  
"I'm... very thankful for your hostage. The fish was very... tasty...", I said lamely and waved Wada goodbye. Shea helped me getting out of the jungle. I probably wouldn't have found any way out there since it had become dark outside. What was I even thinking, I wouldn't have found a way out of that jungle even if I was sober and even if it wasn't dark outside.   
"Chelsea, you good?", Shea asked before letting go of my hand. I didn't even notice that he had held it all the time. I nodded before turning into Kirk's direction. I was very grateful that he had still been here. He looked a bit sleepy, though.  
"Shea, thank you... for bringing me here...", I felt the dizziness rising again. "Goodbye Shea.", I said before hugging him. I didn't even know why I did that and the way he suddenly stiffened in my arms showed that he wasn't feeling comfortable at all but it kind of felt like the right thing to do.   
When we had arrived on the main island again, I noticed a tall person coming from the direction of the beach. I immediately noticed his Stetson and smiled happily.   
"Vaughn!", I shouted before running towards him. He had looked at me quite annoyed before sighing. "I thought your boat came early in the morning and not at night?", I asked. I was surprised by myself for remembering this fact. Vaughn looked at me as if I was from another planet.  
"That depends on the boat I'm taking.", he stated before tilting his head. "You should really go to your farm and sleep. You look horrible.", he added.  
"Well, thank you for this... annotation, I guess.", I mumbled before yawning. I shrugged before hugging the cowboy in front of me sleepily. "Goodnight Vaughn.", I said before letting go and turning around. Good thing I wouldn't remember this the next day.


	11. Chapter 11

I had forgotten it. I really had forgotten to bring Berta back into her barn and I felt like the biggest traitor on this planet. I had slept for maybe five hours I had a hard time getting up since it was only 5 o' clock in the morning. The thought of Berta still being outside had hit me like a truck when I had heard the sound of rain against my windows. I threw the blanket off my bed and took on my raincoat. It didn't matter that I was only wearing my pyjamas underneath, it didn't matter that it was indeed raining outside and that I would be soaked in a minute. But so was Berta now and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything harmful had happened to her. What if there had been wild dogs coming to my farm at night? Would I have noticed? I was stupid enough to accept the peace pipe from Wada even though my experiences with smoking was rather limited, not to say non-existent. I should have known that it was a bad idea. And I had to say, that my memories were really... misted. I exited my house and felt the urge to hit myself when I saw Berta cowering next to her barn's gate. She looked miserable and when I drew closer to her, she opened her eyes and tried to flee but when she tried to stand up, her legs were too shaky and she had to lay down again. I stroked her head before opening the gate of her barn.   
"I'm so unbelievably sorry, Berta.", I sighed. She looked up at me with tired and sad eyes. I was the worst person on this planet. While I tried to lead her into the barn, I apologized about twenty times but that couldn't undo that I had forgotten about her. And that she had to spend a night out in the rain, alone. I didn't want to imagine what would have been if there actually were wild dogs out here. Mirabelle had gifted me this cow, in three weeks there would be the cow festival and I really wanted to win. We had such a good start, Berta and I and I could already feel her milk getting better every day. Besides that, she was the most beautiful cow I had ever seen. When she finally managed to get into her home, she sank down onto a large pile of hay and doze off. She didn't look peaceful and I knew what to do. I remembered seeing Vaughn arriving on the island last night and he was the person who would need to help me. 

I couldn't wake Mirabelle now but was his job to take care of animals, right? I left my farm and climbed over Mirabelle's fence. I entered the paddock, of course, it was empty. Mirabelle would never forget her animals outside in the dark. In the rain. I cleared my throat. What could be Vaughn's room? I tried to remember in what order the rooms on the upper floor of the animal shop were. Julia's room was the one right next to the staircase, so it needs to be the one on the left. Was Vaughn's room the one next to it or was there a bathroom? Vaughn's room used to be Julia's closet so it probably was right next to her room. I shrugged before picking up a small stone. I threw it and managed to hit the facade of the house. I have never been good at throwing. It took three more attempts until I finally hit the window I assumed it was Vaughn's. Nothing happened. It stayed dark inside so I figured he didn't wake up. I took a larger stone and threw it again and this time I hit the window on the first try. I noticed that I didn't even think about that I might break a window once but I wasn't strong enough to do so, anyway. This time I saw a light flickering inside the room and soon I saw Vaughn's head next to the window. He looked out and I saw him shaking his head. He couldn't see me. Of course. I decided to throw another stone so he would know that I was present and when it stroked his window again, he finally opened it. I heard him mumble something and I started jumping around.

"Vaughn!", I shouted. Well, I didn't shout but it was kind of a mixture of shouting and whispering. He blinked before shaking his head.  
"What the fuck are you doing?", he asked and I told him to come down. I noticed that he wasn't wearing his hat, of course, he wasn't. I obviously woke him. But he wasn't wearing a shirt either. There were so many shirtless men on this islands and I wasn't quite sure how to handle the fact that all of them were quite attractive. I couldn't see much though since he still was in his room. But that wasn't why I was here.  
"You need to help me. Berta is sick and I need to help her but I don't know how. Berta is my cow, you know? And I don't know who to ask so I figured you would be the right...", I tried to explain but Vaughn had already closed his window again. When the lights were turned off in his room, I wanted to turn around and go but I couldn't believe what he had done. Had he really just ignored me? Had he just gone back to sleep? I climbed over the fence again and I froze when I heard heavy steps behind me. I turned around and looked at Vaughn, my mouth agape."What?", he asked. "Did you think I would just ignore you and go back to sleep? You got a sick cow on your farm, after all." Well, I couldn't deny it so I decided to say nothing.  
"I forgot to bring her inside the barn last night and as you see, it's raining. I think she's having a cold or something. And she probably ate wet hay and that's no good. You need to help me, Vaughn.", I finished the explanation I had started before and when I saw Vaughn's face, I was frightened. He had this dark look on his face. As if he was evaluating whether to kill me or not. I had never seen such an expression on his face before. Actually, I had never seen somebody looking this furious and angry.   
"How the hell can somebody be this irresponsible and forget about his cow. You sit around and get high while your cow has to stay outside and be frightened to death. And now she's sick. Great job.", he said and I backend. I didn't expect him to talk and I felt my heart aching. I actually had done quite a good job at caring for her but last night was an accident. And I didn't like the idea of him thinking that I took drugs or something and I wondered why he knew about it. He went to my farm and I followed him quietly. There was nothing I could say to make him calm down so I simply refused to speak even though my mind wouldn't keep quiet.I showed him Berta and he sighed heavily. He went down on his knees and patted her, whispering calming words. It was like I was paralyzed when I watched him. He was so caring that I felt a warm feeling in my stomach while watching him. I blinked before shaking my head. I needed to help him, so I kneeled down next to the cow as well. I sat down on the other side though, I didn't want to come to close. When I thought about his dark expression full of disgust from before, I still felt the shiver on my back. After a while, I wanted to build up a conversation because I felt the sleepiness crawling up inside me. 

"I think it's wonderful how you treat animals. I can tell you have got a good heart under all these cowboy rags.", I started off. Once I started, I wasn't able to stop the words flowing out of my mouth. "How can you wear this much clothing in the late spring anyway? It's getting hot.", I asked and felt my cheeks reddening. Well, I knew that he wasn't wearing this much when he was sleeping. When did he cover himself with the garments some minutes ago, anyway? He was so fast. He shrugged and I could tell how tired he was.  
"Why did I have to come here at this time, in the first place? It's like what? 5 am?", he asked and yawned. He held his hand in front of his mouth before rubbing his eyes. Well, he really was tired. I laughed at the picture of a sleepy Vaughn in front of me.  
"Well, Actually it's almost half past five and that's not even this early for me. You know, a farmer has to get up early in the morning." I didn't want to admit that I usually had problems waking up at 6 am as well. He simply shrugged again.  
"You could have waited until noon at least. You know, I need sleep, too.", he stated. I tried to raise an eyebrow but I had never been good at doing so. I must have looked hilarious trying it. I sighed.

"I could have never waited so long for a vet to come and look after her. You were the only one who I thought of as one, so I had to wake you up. That comes with your job, I guess.", I explained and I really meant it. When I had seen Berta's eyes there wasn't even one second of hesitation to go and get him here. I watched him giving medicine to my cow.  
"I'm not a vet.", he responded. "I'm just an animal dealer but it's my job that my livestock comes to the client alive.", he looked right to me while caressing Berta. "Well, they should stay alive once they arrived there.", he added and if he hadn't been this helpful and caring to my cow, I would have punched him. Actually, no but I really wanted to. I darted him an angry look.  
"I do care for my animals. And you know that. Or why do you sell them to me if I'm that bad with them?", I looked at him challenging but he didn't say what I wanted him to say.  
"Cash is cash.", he replied without hesitation and I blinked at him irritated before bringing all the information I had about him together. He would never think like this about animals.  
"As if.", I answered back. "You love your animals. Wealth might be important to you but I can tell that you indeed got a good heart in there.", I patted his shoulder before I could even control my actions. Why was I touching him? I noticed him blushing and he tried to hide it under his Stetson but I didn't want him to. I felt a new feeling of courage rising inside me and I cleared my throat.  
"You look adorable when you blush, you know?", I asked and I felt my face redden myself. He had stopped caressing Berta for a second and looked at me in disbelief. "You shouldn't always hide your face under that hat. Maybe you should take it off sometimes." I tried to grab the black Stetson off his head but he dodged every attempt.  
"Never", he mumbled. I couldn't help but sigh again. Every bit of softness was about to leave his face but there was that hint of a smile resting on his lips.  
"Okay,", I replied. "But then at least try not to hide those smiles of yours. I actually like it when you smile. It's genuine when you are smiling because you never do so.", I stated and I enjoyed seeing him clearing his throat and blushing again. He looked back and forth between me and Berta. His gaze rested on the cow before he got up abruptly.  
"Berta should be healthy soon. Just give her some rest.", he said before turning around and leaving the barn. He didn't even say goodbye and I didn't know what I had done wrong. I watched him through a window and felt kind of guilty for being so annoying. I could have waited until noon for him to come but I was too selfish and didn't even think about how Vaughn might feel. Maybe I intimidated him with my statements and I felt horrible. I needed to apologize and I had an idea how I could do that.


	12. Chapter 12

I didn't leave the barn until that moment when my stomach started grumbling. When I looked out, I saw that the rain had stopped and that the sun had come out. It looked like noon and it seemed to be warm. The flowers bloomed and Berta was sleeping next to me so I excused myself to go out and have something to eat. When I passed the diner, I decided to go and see Denny. I felt like spending some time with him and lunch could wait when I could have a nice and fresh fish stew later. Well, it didn't need to be a stew but I simply craved a dish that included fish and so I wanted to catch some. I felt the breeze on my face and all of my tiredness swept away in a second. It really would be summer soon and I was quite excited about that. I couldn't wait to go swimming in the sea, not like the time when Denny and I fell from his boat. A real swim to get refreshed and vital again. Denny actually sat on the stage fishing when I crossed the beach. He was staring into the ocean and held his fishing rod in front of him and he looked concentrated. I decided not to say anything when I sat down next to him. He looked up and smiled.  
"Hey Chels", he greeted me and I nodded in response. "Nice day to go fishing, huh?", he asked and ruffled through his hair. That was when I noticed Popper on his shoulder. He was croaking his name three times before keeping quiet again.  
"Hey, Popper.", I said and looked back at his owner. "It's finally getting warmer, I guess. How long have you been sitting here?", I asked and he shrugged. He answered that he might have been fishing for four hours and I was really impressed. I thought I could never go fishing alone for such a long time but it was his passion after all. I noticed that something was different today but I couldn't ask because we were distracted by a boat appearing on the horizon. It was the usual boat that brought tourists but mainly supplies for the local shops. It wasn't special or anything but I always felt curious when a boat drew closer to the islands. What would it bring? Who would be on deck and why was he coming? I expected anybody to arrive but when I saw the person leaving the boat I didn't know what to think.  
"Oh, could you please put the suitcases here? And the bags here. No, please don't place them this near to the edge." Denny had sprung up immediately when the heels clacked on the stage and I followed him. I had to admit: She was gorgeous with her long blonde hair that reached down to her waist and her big brown eyes. She wore a green dress that reminded me of a doll's. She had several men behind her that were loading many suitcases on the dock. I blinked twice before holding my hand to her but she skipped it and smiled at Denny brightly.  
"Lanna.", she said shaking his hand before stepping closer and hugging him. "You have to excuse all those cases and bags but I used to be a pop star and I kind of gathered all my things and got here.", she said more to Denny alone than to the two of us. I felt completely invisible next to them and I felt a feeling of rejection rising in my body but I tried to swallow it and smile. When I looked at Denny I hoped to see a look of... I didn't know, indifference maybe, but he looked as if he fell for that blonde girl head over heels. I decided his sudden interest was due to his open mind but it kind of hurt, even though he never intended to hurt anybody. And even though Lanna didn't seem to be the nicest person, she didn't want to make me feel this way as well. When she finally turned away from Denny, who had already introduced her to Popper, she decided to hug me as well. I stiffened a bit but I tried to shake off that feeling and be the nice person I always tried to be. 

"Hey, I'm Chelsea. I'm the local farmer.", I introduced myself. Lanna smiled as if she was looking into a camera.  
"Oh, I didn't know there was a farm here. I come straight from the city, you know? I actually never met a farmer before, you seem so... I don't know, I never thought a person like you would be a farmer.", she stated and I was confused. She confused me and I couldn't help but dislike her for that. A person like me? What was it that made me seem unfitting for my job? I didn't have time to answer because she had already left the stage. Denny stood next to me and looked after her.  
"What do you think of her?", I asked and I saw him blushing slightly. I felt something sting inside me at that sight. He scratched the back of his head and Popper started croaking again.  
"She's so nice. She said she loved fishing and asked if I would like to go fishing with her one day!", he said with a bright smile and I felt how the stinging increased. I watched Denny grabbing one of the many suitcases and following Lanna and I stood there and wasn't able to do anything. I never wanted to be anything more with Denny, for sure, but now that I knew that there was a girl that had captured him within seconds, I felt betrayed, even though there wasn't a single reason to feel that way. I cleared my throat before noticing my stomach grumble again. I really needed to eat something before I fainted.

I entered the diner because I didn't feel like eating fish anymore. I looked at all the people in there. There was Gannon with his daughter, Some tourists had taken place on the other tables and I saw Natalie sitting next to Pierre, who eyed their plates with disgust. I was sure he wasn't visiting his rival because of the food. I noticed that I had seen Natalie and him together often since Julia's birthday. There actually wasn't an empty table because the last one was occupied by Vaughn who looked grumpy as always. I didn't want to sit next to Gannon because I wouldn't know what to talk about and I didn't want to sit at Natalie and Pierre's table because I felt like I wouldn't be welcome. I sighed before sitting down next to Vaughn who didn't even seem to notice at first. His hat covered his eyes and I thought that he was sleeping when he suddenly looked up. He actually yawned before greeting me with a nod.  
"I hope you don't mind my company, I didn't know where else to sit.", I said and he eyed the other persons in the room and shrugged. His amethyst eyes looked into mine when he answered.  
"I usually eat alone and now I eat alone with you sitting on this table.", he said more to himself than to me and I sighed. What was it, that made everybody acting this way around me today? I smiled at Nick who was there to take in our orders and I decided to go for a sandwich. He ordered porridge and I smiled about that.   
"I bet that porridge isn't any better than the one I made for you.", I joked but he shrugged again and stayed silent. He did look very tired and I felt guilty for waking him up this early. We didn't talk until Nick came and served our food. My stomach thanked him and I started eating. Vaughn next to me moved uncomfortably in his chair before sighing and shoving a spoonful of porridge into his mouth. When he swallowed, I felt his gaze on me so I looked back.   
"How's your cow?", he asked. I couldn't decide whether he did that because he didn't like the silence as well or because he was genuinely interested in that information.  
"Berta's fine, I guess. She's very tired but I didn't leave the barn until noon and I could already see the medicine work. Thank you for your help, Vaughn.", I answered and I smiled at him. It wouldn't be true if I claimed that he was returning it but I could see the lines around the corner of his mouth wrinkle which indicated that his facial expression wasn't indifferent.   
"It's my job after all.", he said before he continued eating. I bit into my sandwich when the diner's door opened and I saw Sabrina entering. She was wearing all-purple and she had the pink bow in her hair that she always wore. She looked like she was searching for something and I decided to wave her. We actually didn't have many chances to talk to each other because she always was either busy or not allowed to go out. Maybe I should talk to her father once about how Sabrina was an adult woman and that she could do whatever she wanted. What kind of man might this Regis, Julia had told me his name, be if he had that much power over his daughter? I waved at her and when she caught sight of Vaughn and me, she smiled and drew closer to us.   
"Here you are! I was at your farm earlier but I couldn't find you.", she said and smiled at me. She cleared her throat and nodded to Vaughn. "Hello.", she added quietly and looked back to me. Sabrina opened her purse and went through several envelopes before pulling two out before putting them in front of Vaughn and me. Vaughn looked at the envelope in front of him as if it was going to explode in any second and I decided to simply take it and open it.   
"Father and I wanted to invite every habitant of these islands to a dinner party next week in our house. My cousin is going to live here for some time because his parents sent him to start working with my father and we want to celebrate his arrival.", she explained and I nodded at her thankfully. She looked at the cowboy next to me and her voice got a little quieter when she talked to him. "Of course you are invited as well, even though you only reside on this island twice a week but father set the date so you could come as well."  
"Why would he do that?", was the first thought that came to my mind but I didn't dare to talk out loud. I glanced at Vaughn who seemed to question it as well but he didn't say something either. Sabrina had left our table faster than I could acknowledge and I felt bad for not being able to say goodbye. I looked at the card in my hands and it felt like an invitation to a wedding or something like that because it felt so sophisticated. Vaughn had put his card into his vest and continued eating but I had to organize my thoughts first. It was nice that her father threw a party for Sabrina's cousin but I actually had never been to a dinner party before. I didn't even know what to wear there. I didn't acknowledge Vaughn's gaze on me until I bit into my sandwich again. I saw a hint of his smiles in the corner of his mouth.  
"What?", I asked him with my mouth full. He looked amused before shaking his head. He tilted his head and reached for his Stetson before he actually said something.  
"It's just that when I heard about that invitation, I was irritated and didn't know what to say. But you look indeed terrified by the idea of having to go to a dinner party and that just made my day. I don't know much about the High Society but there's one thing I can tell you: One does not talk with his mouth stuffed with food.", he stated before standing up and leaving the diner with fast steps and leaving me, the confused Chelsea, behind.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been the very first day of summer when I had held a simple white envelope in my hand. Vaughn had accepted my request for taking my letters to Mineral Town and the post boat had passed by and dropped the mail. When I had seen whose name stand on the envelope that Taro had brought to my house, I squeaked in joy. Daniel. Taro had looked at me as if I was about to grow wings and fly away.   
I was sitting on my bed and wanted to rip this letter open but there was something inside me that told me not to do it. It would be the first contact with my old life in a whole season, besides the package I got from my parents, and I was afraid that I would read it and decide to go back. I loved my life on the sunshine islands but the thought of coming back to Mineral Town filled me with delight. I had developed a serious homesickness and there was nothing anybody on this island could do to release me from it. Of course, I had Berta and the farm in general and soon I would have plenty of chicken but I felt like a big part of me was missing. It was like there were two Chelseas inside me. Or there should be and one of them stayed with my parents and the other one was left alone on the Sunshine Islands. I sighed before finally opening the envelope and started reading.

"Hey Chels, what's going on on those islands?", was standing there and I was surprised that I still recognized Daniel's handwriting. It had been written on the envelope, yes, but if Daniel's name hadn't been on there, I would have still known that this letter was from him. The way he wrote his "n" made me smile. The teachers were always scolding him because of how it looked like an "u" and he got many bad grades because of that. He was always declared how any intelligent person could see what he meant because of the context and the other letters. I felt a tear making it's way down my cheek and I wiped it away before continuing to read.  
"You really hit the nail with your letter. I actually wanted to write you much earlier but I couldn't figure out where to send it so I hoped you would write first and I'm so happy you did. My parents are doing fine, as always. I get to see pretty much everything in this world since I do travel a lot from autumn to winter. In summer I'm in Mineral Town, but you know about that. The business is running quite fine and I really want to do this job until I'm old. I hope you are happy with your life as a farmer. I can only imagine you rocking this whole thing. I actually want to see it and since I'm with my parents now, I have plenty of time to come and visit you. To be honest, I can't wait to come and see you. I'm sure the guy who brought your letter to Mineral Town, you mentioned him but I can't remember his name, could give me your answer on if you could lend me your sofa – or the other side of your bed ;D – next week because I heard that Dr. Trent wants to visit the Sunshine Islands, too. He has already checked into the hotel but I thought we could revive our sleepovers because at least I have a lot to tell you. You know what? You sent me one letter and you really didn't tell anything besides that you have met two guys. Do I have to remind you that you once promised that we would marry when we stay single and you seem to run away from that vow as if it was a marathon? Anyways, I will see you next week – if I don't receive a letter from you until Monday, I will go anyway – and I will need to bring you may things from your parents. They are actually doing fine, only that your mum doubled the size of her farm because she works in order to forget that you left them. You should really visit someday."

When I had been reading the words Daniel had wrote, more and more tears had left the corners of my eyes. He hadn't changed a bit. His funny and flirty way of talking... He even remembered the pledge we had made when we were desperate teenagers. We promised that we would marry each other when we would still be single in our forties before we would end up with a dozen of cats. I didn't really agree with how he said that I would run away from that promise because there was nobody near these islands who I could imagine being with anyways. I wondered what we could do and what I could show him when Daniel came here. I'm sure he would love to meet everybody, he was such an open-minded person and everybody would like him immediately.

Berta was healthy again and I cared for her as good as possible. I brushed her every day and when I let her outside, I would always make sure that the grass wasn't wet or anything. I would pet her every time I saw her and every once in a while I gave her some treats. The quality of her milk got better every day, which I could tell by how much more money I got for a bottle now. My crops, on the other hand, stayed the same, no matter how much I tended them. I even got a book from Taro that told me exactly how much water and sun they needed, hell, I had even put up an umbrella so they won't suffer from the rain when it came down like out of buckets. I really hoped that it would click in summer and that I would finally have supreme crops but there was no way I could achieve that in one season so I would focus on raising as many animals as I could. The cow contest would be in two weeks and I really needed the money.  
I decided to go and visit Julia after I had finished work. Sabrina's dinner party would be in two days and there was no way I could go there without any kind of preparation. Julia had already agreed on helping me with my outfit since I had many of her clothes but I had no idea what of them to wear. She knew Sabrina and her father for a much longer time than me now and she probably knew best what fitted the whole occasion. I had entered the shop when Mirabelle greeted me. She told me that she had a whole bunch of eggs that were about to hatch in no time and that I really needed to let Gannon build a barn for me. I looked forward to tending little chicks like I had used to when I was a kid. When I knocked on and opened Julia's door, I was confronted with a picture I had never thought of seeing in my life. Natalie was lying on Julia's bed and she cried while my best friend held her hand and looked at me sadly.  
"What's wrong?", I asked while taking place next to him and stroking Natalie's back carefully. Julia shrugged and looked at Natalie who was still crying. She looked horrible. Her eyes were swollen and her lips were chapped.   
"She ran in here and threw herself onto my bed before she started crying. We have been sitting here for at least 10 minutes now and I have no idea what has happened.", Julia explained and the both of us watched Natalie worriedly. Her pink hair matched Julia's bedding but that didn't make the picture in front of me any better. I don't know how long we have been sitting there until Natalie finally cleared her throat and started speaking quietly.  
"He didn't ask me.", she said and I looked at her questioningly. Julia looked at me as if I had any answers but I had no idea what the crying girl in front of us meant.  
"I'm sorry Nat, but who and what do you mean?", Julia asked cautiously. Natalie sat up slowly rubbed her eyes. She sighed.  
"Pierre. I wanted him to ask me to be his... plus one, you know? But he didn't ask me. And now I feel like he doesn't even like me." When she had finished, Julia and I looked at each other and blinked before asking her if the chef even knew about her desire to go out with him. When Natalie declined, Julia frowned.  
"But how should he know about your feelings towards him if you aren't even ready to tell him? I mean, it isn't like you weren't invited to that party, everybody on this island is. There isn't even a reason for him to ask you to go with him." Julia said and it was exactly what I had thought. Pierre didn't seem to be the type of boy that would confess to a girl easily and Natalie was nicer around him, yes, but she wasn't flirting or anything. Julia and I knew about her feelings but I was confident that the small gourmet was completely oblivious to them.  
"He just needs to know and he needs to ask me out. Because I don't want to do it and I want him to do it.", Natalie said as if it was a fact that Pierre was destined to be the first one to ask her. I tilted my head and looked back and forth between my friends. Even though I didn't have that much experience with relationships, the only one I have ever had was with my best friend, after all, I realized that the two girls in front of me probably never have been with a boy at all. When Julia stated that she would agree with the boy being responsible for asking the girl out, I shook my head in disbelief.  
"But if you are the person who wants it and you know the other one is probably too shy to do so, then where's the problem if the girl confesses first?", I asked and the two of them looked at me as if I was an alien. Julia shook her head.  
"You mean... It's okay if I ask Elliot out one day?", she asked and I nodded. I was relieved when I saw that Natalie managed to stop her tears from falling and actually rolled her eyes when Julia mentioned her brother. "That would make things much easier, I guess.", the blonde said and I felt the urge to facepalm. Were those islands that far off the coast that the people on here were still caught in the fifties? Where was the equality everybody was talking about when the man was still in charge of confessing and things like that?  
"Now that we managed to make things clear, we could prepare mentally for the dinner party. What is a dinner party, anyway? Is it like we go there, have something to eat and go or do we actually have to do something?", I asked and Julia laughed. Natalie was still silent but I saw that she had processed the information about her and Pierre's non-existent relationship. I really hoped she would be brave enough to do the first steps or otherwise, I didn't see a future for the chef and her. I couldn't really get the image in my head of a Pierre that actually cared for more than his meals and a Natalie that would be patient enough for him to notice that there was more in his life than food.  
"Actually, Regi's dinner parties are kind of boring. He had some in the past but they were more something for the adults. But I guess this year will be a little bit more exciting since we all have somebody to dance with." Dance? There was dancing at dinner parties? I loved dancing but there was this picture of me standing there all by myself in the corner of the room and eyeing all the happy couples on the dancefloor.   
"We need to dress up. Regis actually insists on a Black Tie dress code.", Julia added and I cleared my throat. Smokings and long dresses, huh? At least I would look gorgeous when I stood there alone and stared at the others.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I have already uploaded quite a few chapters of this story, I decided to simply upload all of them on here as well so the new chapters go directly into every forum :) They aren't any different from the ones I posted on other sites but it didn't feel right not to upload them here as well :) I hope you have fun with them!

I stood in front of this big door that led into Regi's mansion and I could hear people chatting and music playing inside. I looked down at myself and sighed. I wore a long, burgundy gown I had borrowed from Julia. It was slightly too long since my best friend was much taller than me but I could handle it. I didn't know why I wasn't able to simply go inside, I was already half an hour late even though I have never been a person to not be in time. My hand clenched around my bag and I kicked a stone to my feet away. I didn't want to be alone in there. I didn't want to be reminded that I seem to be the only one on this island that didn't have somebody to be with, this evening. Sabrina's cousin, Will, had arrived in the afternoon as I could tell by the appearance of his gigantic ship. He sure was in there as well, he was the reason for this whole party after all. Julia had told me that Sabrina had told her that her cousin was a prince and that information made me even more nervous about this whole event. How should I act around a prince? Would he even want to talk to a simple farmer like me? I cleared my throat and let my hand slowly reach the door's knob. When it suddenly opened, I backend and almost fell down the stairs behind me. I looked at who had opened the door and breathed out relieved. 

"Eliza come on! Let's get outta here!", Charlie shouted. When he ran into me, he stumbled backwards and shook his head in confusion. He blinked at me and I blinked back. "Chelsea!", he said in a rather bewildered tone. "I thought you were in there!", he said and pointed in direction of the crowd that had gathered in the mansion. Great, nobody had even noticed that I hadn't been there.   
"Yes, Charlie. I just... had to get some fresh air.", I explained tautly before passing him and the blonde girl behind him that was complaining about how he would drag her away from the prince. So Will was in there. I took one last breath before entering the mansion and I was stunned by the bright, golden light the chandeliers threw into the room and how the music seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The dinner party actually took place in an enormous ballroom that shimmered goldenly and there was a long table in the middle. I was grateful when I noticed that there were cards that had the guest's names written on it. I was about to wonder why nobody had started eating yet, nor anyone was talking to me when I heard a ringing sound in my ears. I turned around and winced when I saw a vampire tapping with a spoon against a wineglass. He cleared his throat and started talking. His voice made me shiver.  
"My dear guests. Now that we are all present...", did he just refer to my late arrival? Had the vampire observed me? I had no time to freak out because I heard Julia's voice next to my ear.  
"Where have you been?", she asked and looked at me angrily. Well, not angrily but she wasn't happy at all. I tried to make up a lie but I failed. I sighed.

"I simply couldn't enter the house. I'm sorry.", I apologized before pointing at the bloodsucker in front of us. "Who is this vampire?", I asked. Not that I was surprised to hear that this man was indeed Regis, the owner of this beautiful house, but I wondered instantly how somebody this frightening could have such a sweet and lovely daughter. When the crowd started applauding, I joined them without thinking. I let my eyes wander around the room and I acknowledged many islanders. Taro was wearing tails and an old top-hat that, which made me smile immediately. Next to him was Felicia in a pretty green gown and Natalie and Elliot wore matching blue garments. Of course, only the colour matched but it was funny to see how the annoyed girl and the shy boy always found a way to stress their relationship as siblings. There were actually plenty of people I didn't know, I guessed they were part of Regi's company. Mirabelle wore a nice blue dress that had already seen better years but it made her glow like a star. I couldn't spot Vaughn in the room and I felt kind of disappointed. I wanted to ask Julia where he was but I got interrupted by a stunning man in a white tuxedo who stepped towards the vam... Regis and hugged him in a short but familiar hug. It was very touching to see Regi's face softening a bit. 

"Thank you, uncle.", he said and the synapses in my brain started working. Will. Of course, it was Will, he even looked like a prince. Blonde hair, blue eyes, he was dreamy. I regretted that I didn't pay attention to what Regis had said because everybody else in this room looked touched by his words. The host asked us to take place at the table and I felt relieved when I saw that I got to sit next to Julia. My best friend wasn't as happy about her seat when she saw that her crush Elliot had taken place next to Natalie who separated the two of them. I wanted to tell her to switch seats with him but I was taken aback by the fact that I had no idea if that was even allowed for a dinner party this sophisticated. The seat right in front of me stayed empty and still was when the first dish was served. I hadn't eaten all day long because I wanted to be able to eat up everything but I could even feel my stomach being disappointed when I witnessed how barely occupied my plate was. There was a tiny little piece of salmon on it, that was surrounded by drops of sauce and it was topped by a stalk that looked like grass. I could have put two whole portions of this on my fork. After I had finished, which actually was after five seconds of chewing and one second of swallowing, I took the seat card in front of me and checked if it really was Vaughn's chair that was empty. It was, obviously, he wasn't present and I felt sad again. Why did I feel sad? I surely cared about him enough to wonder where he was but disappointment and sadness weren't the emotions I wanted to feel.

Three dishes later, I finally felt full and satisfied when Regis again raised his voice and told us to stand up to the staff could clear everything up. Until this point, I hadn't even noticed that there was staff present but there were at least one dozen butlers ready to clear away the rest of the dinner and while I was talking to Julia about how her excitement because of the forthcoming dance, the staff had already taken away the table and all the tables. I was impressed.  
"I think we didn't have a chance to have a conversation, did we?", a soft voice asked me from behind and I turned around in surprise. I opened my eyes widely when I looked into those dreamy, blue ones. The prince. He was talking to me. I didn't know what to do and I think he felt that because he started laughing.   
"My name is William Terry Louis Andrew Carrick Jonathan Dredge Hams Reading Roger Southwark Alwick Plymouth Junior Regison III. But that doesn't matter. What actually matters is what your name may be, my lady?", he asked and I stuttered a quiet 'Chelsea'. He really was a prince. He laughed again. "What a very beautiful name. Of course, not near as beautiful as the girl who's called this name.", he complimented me and I felt the redness growing up my face. This was too much. Definitely. I thanked him, but I didn't think I could handle this any longer. Suddenly the music started playing louder and faster and there were many pairings coming together in order to dance. Julia was faster at Elliot's side than Natalie could have blocked but she already drew closer to Pierre who stood out in his lilac smoking. I really didn't want to dance with the prince in front of me, as charming as he was, but I felt so uncomfortable then that I simply wanted to stand alone and watch all the others having fun. I wanted to do exactly what I had feared the other day. I was more than happy when Will excused himself and told me that he had to dance the first dance of the evening with Sabrina. Almost all of the islanders were dancing as well, Natalie had managed to get Pierre on the floor, too. Felicia was dancing with Chen, Mirabelle was dancing with Gannon, which was very funny to see. I saw Denny for the first time this evening, he was dancing with Lanna and even though I knew that this would happen, I didn't like the sight of this. But I promised him in my mind that I would try to like her because he was my best friend. She looked stunning in a green gown that was flowing around her body like water. I didn't know how long I had been standing there, watching them, when I finally decided to go out and get some fresh air. I walked into the foyer and wanted to check my appearance but I couldn't find a mirror. The thought of Regis being a vampire came into my mind again and it all made so much sense. Why would a vampire have any mirrors in his mansion if there was no way he saw his reflection in it? I shrugged before opening the entrance and walking outside. I really wanted to join the party again afterwards but all those happy couples simply didn't need me there and I didn't need to see them. I wished that there was somebody with me but there wasn't. 

I stepped down to the beach, I left my shoes, high heels I never thought I would wear again after my prom, in the sand and let my bare feet burrow in the sand. I reached a point where the sand got moist and stopped there. My dress wasn't allowed to get dirty. I listened to the waves crashing against big rocks and the moon shone over the ocean. I could see many stars above my head. I breathed in and out slowly. It was wonderful out there. I bent down and collected a shell that lay to my feet and I wanted to put it in my pockets before noticing that I had none. I held it in my hand and looked at the way it reflected the moonlight. It shimmered in different colours and I was mesmerized by it. I continued watching the sea when I suddenly heard steps behind me. I turned around and saw a tall figure in a black tuxedo. His hair shimmered in the moonlight and I was stunned when he came closer. I knew how handsome he was but the shimmering seashell was nothing against him. I actually had let it fall down.  
"Chelsea.", Vaughn said, "We should really go to this damn party or Julia will kill us."


	15. Chapter 15

On the way back to Regis' mansion, I wasn't quite sure what to say so I decided to keep quiet. Vaughn was walking one step ahead of me and he didn't say something as well. That wasn't a surprise, of course, but it wasn't this comfortable silence we had sometimes shared but I could feel the tension in the air. He looked really attractive that night, his silver hair reflected the light of the moon and the contrast to the black tuxedo was simply stunning. When I caught myself thinking this, I felt the urge to hit myself. It was Vaughn, after all. Sure, he was very gentle towards animals, but he was Julia's cousin. Even if he was nicer to me, there wouldn't be a chance of us becoming... more. Why was I thinking about this anyway? He didn't even like me as a person. There was no point in philosophising about what could be if. When we arrived at the door, Vaughn finally turned to me.

"I guess, I should go and talk to Julia first. At least, I'm here now, right?" Vaughn didn't want an answer to this, I knew that. I sighed before opening the door. I was blinded by the golden light and Sabrina greeted us. She was standing next to the door, I guessed she was waiting for something.   
"Oh, Vaughn, I didn't know you were coming.", she said shyly and I noticed that her voice was again quieter than usual. Did she like Vaughn? Had they even talked to each other once? I shook my head before smiling at her.  
"You invited me.", he stated and I really wanted to punch him for his rudeness, especially when I saw how Sabrina's mood fell instantly. She sighed before turning around and leaving the foyer. I glanced at Vaughn but he was already looking for Julia and when he saw her, he left me without another word and I watched him go.   
I turned around and looked for Sabrina but I couldn't spot her so I decided to go into the ballroom where several couples were dancing. I noticed Denny standing all by himself, Lanna was nowhere to be seen. I went straight to him.

"Hey, Chelsea.", Denny said happily and I greeted him back. He looked good that day, even though his tuxedo was rather old and didn't fit him that well. Why would a fisherman need a perfect smoking anyway? It was kind of charming to see him like this.  
"I wondered if you want to dance with me?", I asked. I wasn't shy around him, there was nothing that spoke against a dance with him and I really wanted to. Denny grinned and took my hand before leading me to the dancefloor. Right then, a new song had started. It wasn't too slow and yet slow enough to do ballroom dancing. Denny smiled at me when we found a fitting spot.  
"Actually, I wanted to ask you earlier but I didn't see you, to be honest. Where have you been?", he asked. I waved off and lay my hand on his shoulder. He put his hand on my waist and I was surprised that I felt... pretty much nothing. Of course, there was the warmth of his hands but it wasn't like something inside me was tingling. Yet, it was satisfying to see the look on Lanna's face when she entered the room and spotted Denny and me dancing. I didn't mind her any longer and just concentrated on Denny. He stepped on my foot twice but I tried to hide the pain in my face. We maybe were a little bit stiff while dancing but I was sure we simply needed to get used to it and then everything would go well. After the song, Denny excused himself and went back to Lanna, who was as jealous as somebody could be. What was going on between those two?   
I decided to go to Julia, who actually had left Elliot with his sister and talked to Vaughn. She was rather reproving him and I giggled at that sight. How she tried to make herself taller so she would look more commanding and how Vaughn didn't care at all.  
"Chelsea! I can't believe he didn't attend the dinner. Can you? Good thing you found him! I can't believe it, Vaughn! You were invited after all!", Julia exclaimed and I didn't know what to say, so I shrugged.  
"Well, Vaughn doesn't seem like the kind of person who likes events like this. Maybe we should simply be happy that he's finally here.", I tried to calm her down. I felt Vaughn's gaze on me and when I looked directly at him, he didn't set his eyes in another direction. Amethyst. His eyes stunned me every time I saw them this close and I didn't hear what Julia was telling me. I saw Vaughn rolling his eyes and I smiled. I could tell that he liked his cousin really much but she sounded like a mother right then and he was older than her. This short moment of eye-locking was interrupted by a voice behind me and a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and looked into two blue eyes, framed by thick, light lashes. The prince! I felt panic rising inside me, there was nothing I could do so I simply smiled at him. He smiled back brightly.  
"I'm devastated that we haven't had the chance of dancing, my lady. You look wonderful right now and it's clearly wrong that you are not in the arms of a man right now. Would you mind changing those circumstances?", Will asked while giving me a big, genuine smile. I couldn't decide what to say and I felt anxiety when I thought about him and me dancing because he clearly was a great dancer and I was a farmer without any further knowledge about how to behave and now I had to...  
"It would be an honour for her!", Julia exclaimed and pushed me in the direction of the man in the white tuxedo. He may have been the only one around to wear a white smoking but it looked stunning on him and I couldn't imagine anybody else in there wearing it besides him. I darted a look at Julia but Will had already taken my hand. He wore white gloves which created a special kind of distance between us while he led me to the dancefloor. 

"You don't seem to talk much, so I hope you don't mind that I just stole you away from your friends. But I got to dance with every single girl in this room but I simply couldn't stop thinking about this beautiful girl in the long, burgundy dress.", he said and I blushed furiously.  
"Actually, I do talk quite much but I was afraid that I might say the wrong things. You are a prince, after all, my...majesty?", I wanted to sound confident but I wasn't quite sure what to say so I must have sounded pathetical. Will laughed out loud while placing one hand on my waist and took a hand of mine in the other hand.   
"I'm Will. Just Will. Please. I don't identify myself with the status I was born into.", he stated and I looked at him in surprise. He said that he didn't mind being a prince but at the same time he talked as if he had the unstoppable urge of impressing how special he was. I tried to get rid of those mean thoughts in my head. He seemed like a very kind person, if not very modest. Maybe somebody who grew up like him simply couldn't be humble. I tried to concentrate on the dance. Will was an excellent dancer which didn't surprise me at all, but I felt like a doll that was swung around in the room. His dancing was so good that he made me look like a pro, even though my dress was too long and my feet stumbled over each other. When I was about to fall, he caught me without any problems and he smiled during the whole dance. I smiled back, of course, but there was nothing that made all of this feel special. Maybe I was simply thinking too much about everything. After the music had stopped, Will had bowed in front of me and thanked for the dance. I had stood there, again not knowing how to act at that exact moment so I simply had thanked back and said goodbye to him. Not that I had any intentions of leaving early but it had felt like the right thing to say.

"A prince, huh?", a deep voice had asked next to me. I had sat down on the edge of the room because my feet hurt after all this dancing. I shouldn't have worn high heels that day. I looked up and saw Vaughn, who had taken place on a chair next to me. I tilted my head before smiling at him.  
"Oh, he says that he's just a normal guy. Well, I actually never met a 'normal guy' before that had thirteen names. Thirteen! I guess his parents had something to compensate.", I said what I had thought when Will had enlightened me about his names. Vaughn smirked and I enjoyed it. Was this part of Julia's plan of making him more social? Of making him integrate into the island's society? Maybe I simply needed to make bad jokes around him and he would be fine.   
"You look... good today.", he said and I looked at him shocked. Did he just compliment me? I brushed some hair that had loosened over the evening out of my face. I blushed a little bit even though I was sure he didn't mean it like that.  
"Thank you. You look great today, too.", I told him and I admired once again his appearance. He looked in direction of the dancefloor. He suddenly had a concerned look on his face. I followed his gaze and saw Sabrina who was running around in the room. Nobody talked to her. Just as I wanted to ask what we would do, he sighed and stood up before I could react. I watched him going over to her and I saw how fragile she appeared next to Vaughn. He had brushed through his hair before saying something to her. She looked surprised before nodding shyly. When he took her hand, I felt something twisting in my stomach. Did he really just ask her to dance with him? Well, she did look sad on her own party but why would Vaughn come over to her and help her? Why not Will or anybody else? Why Vaughn? Why was he so nice to her? I watched them dancing. She was definitely the better dancer but they did harmonize together. I tried to look away but I couldn't. The way he spun her around and how the fabric of her dress flew through the air hypnotized me in a way I hadn't known it before. I hadn't even noticed Julia to my side before she had started talking to me. 

"I had never thought about this possibility, but do you think Vaughn might have a thing for Sabrina?", she asked and I couldn't help but nod. I didn't nod because I was entirely sure about this theory but because of this strong feeling inside of me, that told me to go there and grab him and dance with him. What was going on with me? "I mean, it would surely help him integrate on this island more. Having a girlfriend here, you know? But I never thought girls like her were his type. I mean, I remember this woman that has called him honey on the phone. Girls like Sabrina wouldn't do things like that, would they?", I couldn't answer and I didn't care what Julia would think. I was hit by this feeling I couldn't name nor control and so I stood up and tried to run away. When I passed the dancing couples, the music had stopped and I didn't dare to look back.   
I simply went outside again and sat down on the stairs that led to the mansion. It didn't take long for heavy steps to appear behind me.

"What's wrong?", the voice, I identified as Vaughn's, asked me and I shrugged. He sighed and held his hand in front of my face. When I didn't take it, he harshly grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.   
"That hurt!", I exclaimed and he rolled his eyes. I rubbed my arms before looking up at him.  
"As if.", he said and took my hand. It wasn't a gentle touch, nor was it very comfortable but it made my whole body a little bit warmer. I looked up at him in confusion but he only led me inside and pulled me on the dancefloor.  
"You don't want to tell me that you were jealous of Sarah, weren't you?", he asked with an amused look on his face. I blushed a bit and blew up my cheeks. I tried to go away but he still held me in by my arms. I rolled my eyes and looked at him annoyedly.  
"Her name is Sabrina. And I wasn't jealous. I don't even get why you think I would be.", I snapped at him. He mumbled something I didn't understand and put his hands roughly around my waist. That might have been the moment when my brain stopped working. I looked up to Vaughn and I saw something in his eyes flashing. I put my hands around his neck and prepared for being pushed away but he didn't do that. I couldn't hear the music that was playing because of the blood that rushed through my ears. Vaughn surely wasn't the best dancer but I didn't care about that. He didn't look at me while we were dancing but he didn't seem to be distant either. The grip around my waist didn't loosen and when Vaughn swirled me around, I saw Julia dancing with Elliot but when she saw the two of us, she stopped immediately. Her jaw dropped and she looked as if she had seen a ghost. Vaughn's gaze had followed mine and I saw a small smile on his face. When he noticed my glimpse of him, he looked directly into my eyes. I blushed and I saw his cheeks getting slightly rose as well. We were caught in this moment and it was only when the music stopped that Vaughn let loose. We stood there, not able to say anything, we simply stared at each other, not able to comprehend what had happened between us. He looked around nervously before turning around and leaving me by myself. I guess I would have had to faint then.


	16. Chapter 16

"You're not serious, are you?", Julia had asked me after she had seen me and Vaughn dancing. "The two of you looked like you were about to make out right before Sabrina's eyes, who looked devastated by the way, and I don't mean this smooch-smooch kissing, not this sweet, gentle kissing, no, I mean you looked like he was going to give it to you at any moment.", she had added and I had sat there, furiously blushing and unable to say anything. She had been exaggerating, of course, but the fact alone that she even thought of something like that made me feel uncomfortable. I had shaken my head and had said that she should concentrate on seducing Elliot if she was so desperate that she was reliant on making up things between me and her cousin. At that, she didn't know what to respond so she had switched topics, which was convenient since I had always had to think of Vaughn and me kissing and there was this strange feeling in my stomach that made me speechless.

That day was the day when Daniel would come to the islands and his boat was said to arrive in fifteen minutes from then. I had come to the landing stage earlier because there was no way, I would miss him. Denny had accompanied me and we had sat down on the old wood and watched the waves. When the small boat appeared on the horizon, I jumped up in excitement. I even looked forward to seeing Dr Trent again, even though he used to be the man with the syringe in my childhood. Denny stood up as well and smiled when he saw the joy in my eyes.   
"You look like a child before Halloween when you're about to steal all this candy.", he commented on me but I ignored him. The boat drew closer and closer to us and my excitement grew. When it had docked, I almost ran on deck because I couldn't wait to see Daniel. When I saw him, nothing could stop me from tackling him. He caught me in his arms and we laughed happily.   
"You look exactly the same as when I saw you last time.", he said while letting me down again. He didn't change much as well. He still had his brown curls, they were longer than Dennys. He had them in a short ponytail and his face was framed by some curls that had loosened. His eyes had a dreamy blue colour which he had inherited from his grandmother. He was tanned and quite muscular.   
"And you are the same womanizer as you have always been.", I responded and rolled my eyes. I took his hand and led him down the stage, where Denny, Vaughn and Dr Trent, who must've gone there while Daniel and I had greeted each other, waited. Vaughn waited? Where had Vaughn come from? It was Monday, after all. I looked at him questioningly and he only grunted a short "Holidays.", before turning around and leaving the small group of ours. He had looked different than usual. He didn't show his indifferent attitude but he looked like he was about to punch somebody. I knew that he was a workaholic but I had never seen somebody this miserable about his breaks. I shrugged before hugging Dr Trent.  
"It's good to see you, Chelsea.", he said while letting loose. He had developed some grey streaks and his eyes were framed by thin lines. My father had once told me that he was my mum's ex-boyfriend and from that moment on, I couldn't get those images of my mum and him out of my head. It simply felt so wrong to imagine my mother with another man, even though Dr Trent surely had looked good, when he was younger.  
"I hope you have a nice stay on these islands. They're my home now, after all.", I said before turning back to Daniel and pointing at Denny, who smiled at him brightly. "This is...", I started but I was interrupted by the boys themselves.  
"Daniel!", Denny had shouted while throwing himself into a manly hug with my best friend and I was standing there, not able to comprehend what was going on. Did they know each other? Daniel had started laughing while he patted Denny's back.  
"Denny here is my go-to fisherman for most of my restaurants.", Daniel explained and I wondered why I didn't know about this. How small the world was. I didn't expect Denny to deliver fish to Mineral Town and other places where Daniel had restaurants.  
"Well, I'm going to show Daniel the other islands, do you want to come with us?", I asked the fisherman but he declined with a nod in the direction of Lanna, who had brought a towel and lay in the sand, only wearing a bikini and sunglasses. Denny started grinning and I rolled my eyes. I still couldn't understand why he was so into this girl. Every time she talked to me, she managed to make herself even more unlikeable to me. Daniel had followed Denny's gaze and started grinning as well. It was a creepy expression imbued with lust. I cleared my throat notably before punching Daniel's shoulder.   
"We need to go. Now.", I said abruptly and took his hand again. We ran through the paths like small children and I showed him pretty much everything before we arrived at my farm. Daniel seemed genuinely impressed when he saw my fields and the barn. Gannon had already started laying the foundation of the coop and when I saw the look on my friend's face, I was feeling proud as well. I opened the door to my house and Daniel examined the inside of it. He let himself fall on my sofa and I brought us two glasses of water.   
"So...", I began before sitting down next to him. "You need to tell me what you did in the last years when we hadn't many chances to see each other. Do you have a girlfriend?", I asked bluntly and he started laughing.  
"You know, that's why I missed you so much.", he said and took a sip out of his glass. "You're always so direct.", he added. "No, I don't have a girlfriend right now. Or let's say, nothing serious.", he answered my question and I shook my head because he hadn't changed a bit. "The beach-girl is a bae, though.", he said and I felt the urge to hit him again.  
"I'm sorry to tell you that Lanna is kind of taken. By Denny, by the way. And please. Don't ever say 'bae' again. That's disgusting.", I said dryly and Daniel bent over and ruffled up my hair under my protest.   
"Of course she's Denny's girl. He always had a thing for blonde ones.", he explained and I asked myself once again how it could be that the two of them were this close. I mean, they even looked alike. Daniel gave me a cocky look. "And that Vaughn almost killed me.", he said and I blinked at him confusedly.   
"What do you mean by that?", I asked and he laughed. He stroked a curl out of his face and stretched himself.  
"What I mean, is that when you and I were embracing us passionately, the cowboy wanted to run towards me and punch the hell out of me.", he declared and I started laughing hysterically. That sounded ridiculous. What was the emotion Daniel wanted me to recognize in this behaviour? Jealousy? There was no way, Vaughn could ever react jealously because there was one thing that was necessary for this emotion: You needed to care. And Vaughn didn't care about anything. He had shown me that often enough and then he was so grumpy because he had to stay on these islands for a long time because he had to take holiday.   
"Daniel, please don't make up things like that. And let's not talk about Vaughn. He's... he's nicer than he seems, you know? He often looks annoyed, don't worry, it had nothing to do with you.", I tried to reassure my friend but he only shook his head before standing up and starting to search something in my kitchen.  
"If you say so...", he mumbled while opening several drawers. "How is it possible that you have a whole farm out there but literally nothing edible in here?", he asked and I remembered that I had planned on filling up my fridge but obviously, I had forgotten to do that.  
"I have to sell everything I produce, but if you're hungry, we can go to the diner. There you can meet some of my friends.", I suggested and Daniel agreed on that. 

We left the house and he told me about how he handles five restaurants in five towns and I was really impressed. He had never been an organized or a hard-working person and so I was surprised to hear about his success. We were adults then, not the teenagers we used to be. When we used to play tricks on our neighbours and when we helped my parents on the farm and ended up in haystacks, fighting over who was the stronger one. We entered the diner and encountered Julia and Natalie, who were having lunch as well. I told Daniel to follow me and sat down next to Julia.  
"Oh, Chels, you never told us how handsome your old friend is.", she said and eyed Daniel excitedly. Daniel laughed and blinked at her.  
"Old friend sounds wrong in this context. More like a dog.", he responded and even Natalie laughed. I rolled my eyes.  
"Daniel, this is Julia and that's Natalie. They are my best friends here so please don't try to flirt with them. By the way, they are very much interested in somebody else.", I stated and Natalie sighed.  
"To be honest, I have no idea if Pierre is able to be interested in a human being.", she said and poked in her salad. Julia patted her shoulder and I looked at Daniel, who tried to brighten up her mood.  
"If I was in this Pierre's position, I wouldn't be sure how to tell you how gorgeous you are, as well. I mean, you seem to be a highly independent woman and that can appear as slightly... bewildering. To weak men, of course.", he said smoothly and laid his arm around Natalie's chair. She shifted it nervously and I glanced at Daniel.  
"Don't you dare to try it.", I threatened jokingly and he held his hands up in defence.   
"Chelsea, you know that you are and always will be my one and only love.", he said and winked at me and I laughed. "Actually, we are going to marry someday.", he added and Julia suddenly perked up.   
"You are?", she asked and I shook my head.  
"We promised that we would do it if we wouldn't be able to find anybody else.", I explained and Julia smiled mischievously. She turned to Daniel and lifted her fork while talking.  
"Oh, then you will need to start searching because Chels here already managed to warm up my cousin and when she continues like this, he is going to propose to her in a few seasons.", she joked and I almost choked on my water.  
"Julia!", I called out and punched her shoulder lightly. She laughed loudly and Daniel rose his eyebrows.  
"So, you are Vaughn's cousin?", he asked and I felt the urge to hit somebody. We hadn't even named him and now my two best friends would found a club where they would make fun of me because of Vaughn being grumpier than usual. Julia nodded and they started talking about how he reacted when he saw Daniel and me on the stage.  
"I can't believe it, Chels. You managed to make my cousin like you and you haven't done anything. What's your secret?", Julia asked and I rolled my eyes again.  
"Please, just let me be. Vaughn doesn't like me and I don't like him. We barely even know each other, that's ridiculous.", I said but nobody seemed to listen to me.  
"What her secret is?", Daniel started while smiling brightly. "Well, I could list quite a few things our Chelsea is able to do but I don't think she wouldn't want you to know.", he mocked and I blushed furiously. When I kicked his shin under the table, he winked at me and nodded slowly.   
"What do you mean by that?", Natalie asked innocently and I shook my head while looking at Daniel.   
"Oh, it's her secret after all, so I really shouldn't tell you. And I wouldn't have a place to sleep if I talked about this right now. Sleeping is a keyword, isn't it, Chels?"


	17. Chapter 17

"I finished watering all the crops, boss, what shall I do next?", Daniel asked me and I scratched the back of my head. Daniel and I were quite a good team at my farm, I did the work with Berta and her new friend Paula and the four chicken that lived in the coop next to the farm. Gannon had finished it with a wink and pointed out that it was some kind of pre-birthday present. When he had said this, I had winced because I had managed to forget about my birthday completely. It would be on the next Wednesday, one day after the cow festival. Taro must've told Gannon about this since I hadn't even told Julia about it.  
"Did you remove all the weed between the plants?", I asked and Daniel sighed. I smiled at him. He really wasn't made to be a farmer. He was far too sloppy when it came to completing several tasks in a row, or much worse, at once.   
"You haven't told me to do so!", Daniel complained and crossed his arms in front of his chest like a small kid. I rolled my eyes because I obviously had done so because I had told him four times in four days now.   
"Then we will finish this together.", I said reassuringly and Daniel squatted down between my small tomato plants. He started plucking weed and I sat down next to him in order to help him. While doing so, I leaned my head on his shoulder and he started stroking my back. "I missed you.", I murmured and he nodded. "You are not allowed to go back to Mineral Town. Your father can take care of the restaurant. I need you here." I got very nostalgic when I thought about his departure in two days. He looked at me and smiled kindly.  
"You don't need me here. I like to be with you, but you have many nice friends here. I need to go home. By the way, today's Saturday. Don't you have anything to do on Saturdays?", he asked and I shrugged.   
"And tomorrow will be Sunday and then will be Monday. Here, we don't really have weekends since everybody is pretty independent of the rest of the world. There are no special days.", I explained. Well, except Wednesdays and Thursdays, my mind added but I shook my head so those thoughts would leave my mind as fast as they came into it.  
"Yeah... Makes sense... but it's Saturday! And it's nice weather! And I still haven't hooked up with anyone here!", he complained and I hit him lightly on his shoulder.   
"And you won't do this in the next days, either!", I exclaimed hurriedly and Daniel smiled. He had already told me in the last nights, which we spent talking and laughing, that he didn't live a boring life.  
"Nah, I'm not that interested anyway.", he stated and I saw in his eyes that again, he told the truth. Besides the incident with his hands around Natalie's shoulders, there hadn't been any flirtatious interactions with any other inhabitants on this island.  
"Maybe we could organise a little get-together since you have to leave on Monday morning.", I suggested and he nodded in excitement. His eyes sparkled and his bright smile was charming as always.  
"On the beach?", he asked and I nodded. We needed to cherish the warm season as long as it was here. Even though there was still so much time left in summer, I was already anxious about what might happen in Winter, when I was reliant on my animals and the goods they produced. We finished the farm work and decided to visit my friends and tell them about our plans for the evening. 

It had taken quite a while to reach everybody, but in the evening, we would meet up with Julia, Natalie and her brother, Sabrina, which everybody was very surprised about but she was allowed to go since her father was able to supervise the beach from the window of his study, Pierre, Lanna, Will and even Shea was coming – There was no way I would forget about the kind boy from the jungle. Vaughn was nowhere to be seen but Julia had promised me to tell him to come as soon as she found him. Daniel had managed to collect quite a lot of alcohol and I had only rolled my eyes when I saw him. Chen had sold him some sake and beer, Denny had some bottles of rum and Lanna had given him some self-made strawberry liquor that smelled way too sweet and I wasn't sure if it may be had been poisoned. I had brought all bottles of mineral water I could find, so we had at least some compensation. I felt like a teenager again, back when Daniel and I had met with all the other kids from Mineral Town and we collected all kind of alcohol that we could find in our parents' homes. I laughed out loud at that thought. We had felt so cool and untouchable back then.  
When Mirabelle had heard about our plans, she volunteered on preparing some snacks, so Julia could bring them. I was quite grateful since I had forgotten to ask Pierre to make something and I didn't have enough food to make snacks for this many of people.

Daniel had accompanied me when I had visited the mushroom island again. Shea had never left his home and so it was good to have another person by my side to help Shea get on at off that boat safely. Kirk had been sitting there and watched the jungle boy, who actually grew greener and greener with any minute he spent in the small boat, in amusement. Wada hadn't been too happy with us taking him to the main island, but he agreed that Shea was an adult now and I thought that his drug consume might have been much higher than any of ours, anyway. When I had let Shea inside my house, he was impressed."Chelsea's tent so big.", he murmured and Daniel and I had shared an amused look. Daniel then had opened his suitcase and gathered some clothes for Shea but when he held them to my friend from the jungle, Shea backend and hissed at Daniel like a cat in defence.   
"No, Shea. Calm. Please, calm down. These are clothes for you to wear. A light blue shirt and some beige shorts. We are going to meet some of my friends and they might be acting differently around you if you appeared there..."  
"...half-naked.", Daniel had finished my sentence and I punched his shoulder again. I shot him an annoyed look but he only shrugged. I took the garments out of his hands an handed them to Shea, who still looked sceptically. I finally was able to convince him to take it on and I had to admit that Daniel's clothes were quite fitting. Of course, Shea was a little bit smaller than my best friend and his figure was slimmer. The colours looked really bright on his tan skin.  
Natalie and Eliott had come to my house in order to help us carry all of our bottles down to the beach. The pink haired girl had eyed the liquor quite sceptically and Eliott hadn't said anything, is always. Shea had kept quiet for a very long time and I was afraid that he might be too shy to get to know so many new people at once. It was when Natalie had almost dropped Denny's precious bottle of rum when Shea had grabbed it and said: "No worries. Shea has it."  
It was as if Natalie hadn't even noticed the jungle boy because she had looked at me questioningly before thanking Shea. I had cleared my throat.  
"This is Shea.", I explained. "He lives on mushroom islands with his father.", I explained and she nodded slowly. She rose and eyebrow before continuing to walk indifferently two steps ahead of us. Eliott had watched Shea as if he was a wild animal. I hoped the others wouldn't be as repellently when it came to the boy they didn't know.   
"Chelsea, this was a brilliant idea of yours, this meeting.", Julia had said when arriving on the beach. Daniel had smiled at her flirtatiously and laid his arm on her back before enlightening her about the small get-together being his idea. When he saw my annoyed look, he had taken his hands away from the blonde but it felt like she hadn't even noticed him putting them there in the first place. Her attention only lay on the pink-haired boy next to her. More and more people arrived and everybody brought a little bit to improve our time together. Lanna had brought an old CD player and her collection of CDs from the city. Even though I had only invited her because of politeness, I was happy she did that. Pierre had brought some snacks, even though nobody had asked him to do so. Denny had brought more rum and a guitar. I hadn't known about his instrumental skills but I was looking forward to hearing him play. Sabrina had brought some blankets, I was surprised myself that nobody else, me included, had forgotten about those important items. When everything was ready, the music started playing and everybody chattered happily. The food was delicious and it didn't take long for us to start drinking. Everybody was relaxed and satisfied.  
"Shea, where do you live exactly?", was the first thing, the jungle boy was asked at the party. He had shrugged and pointed in the direction of his island. In general, he didn't talk much. I was afraid, he would feel ashamed of his lack of language but the time showed that he just needed to warm up a bit. The alcohol they gave him, surely helped him with it and soon he was talking to Denny. Their main topic was fish, of course, but I had noticed Natalie drawing closer and closer to the both of them during the evening. If I hadn't known better, I would have assumed that she was actually interested in fishing but I had seen the look on her face when Shea had opened his mouth. She seemed fascinated by him. She observed him like a wild animal, as if he was about to run away in any second she moved too fast.

The sun had already set when we had managed to empty the first bottles and even though I had really tried to hold myself back I could already feel the dizziness in my head. It felt especially heavy when I moved to fast. I looked around slowly when my gaze fell on a tall figure leaning against a tree. I went to it and tried to stand next to him casually.  
"I thought you wouldn't come here.", I said and almost fell to the side. I had been able to catch myself. Vaughn pulled his hat into his face.  
"You seem to be a fan of drugs.", he commented dryly. I blushed furiously. At the same time, I felt anger crawling up my stomach.  
"You don't know anything about me. And I don't do drugs. We are just having fun and you... you haven't talked to me in over a week!", I complained and I really didn't mean to but my tongue was way faster than my brain. I was fighting with my balance again, so I grabbed Vaughn's arm. He sighed.   
"You are a strange girl, you know?", he asked and I looked up at him in confusion. "Let's get you back to your friends. I don't want you to pass out next to me. I don't want to be responsible for you.", he said and pushed me softly in the group's direction. When we arrived there, Julia sprang up to her feet.  
"Vaughnie!", she cried out and hugged her cousin compassionately. I giggled at that sight because his face was priceless. He looked as uncomfortable as somebody could look like. "Now we can finally play!", she shouted and waved at all the other attendants. We all gathered in a circle and Julia put a bottle in the middle of us."You are kidding, right?", Vaughn asked and I slowly shook my head. She couldn't be serious, I wasn't even sure when the last time was I had played this game. I glanced at Daniel, who was smiling contently. Of course, he had always loved to play this game.  
"So this is a fun round of 'Truth or Dare'?", Denny asked and Julia nodded in excitement. Her drunk-self was even more ecstatic than she was anyway. She spun the bottle around and it stopped at Sabrina's feet. She blushed slightly before clearing her throat.  
"Dare.", she said quietly, not sure if she wanted to do so. Because she was the first one to be asked, she was allowed to decide who should ask her something. She looked around nervously before slowly lifting her index finger and pointing at Vaughn. I raised my eyebrows as surprised as everybody else but when I heard Vaughn's question, I knew why she chose him: She knew that he would never ask something, she wouldn't feel comfortable answering.   
"What's your favourite hobby?", he asked and everybody moaned annoyedly.   
"Vaughn, have you ever played this game before? It's about getting to know intimate things about people. Literally, everybody here knows that Sabrina reads all the time.", Denny complained and Julia nodded in agreement.  
"Why, yes, I guess, reading is my favourite.", Sabrina said quietly and nodded at Vaughn thankfully. He didn't smile back but my dizzy mind admired him for being this nice to her. At the same time, I found myself asking why it had always been her, he was this nice to. Sabrina had spun the bottle again but I couldn't quite concentrate on what had happened then. I had focussed Vaughn, who was sitting right in front of me. He met my gaze and looked away hurriedly. Daniel had touched my shoulder and pointed at my cleavage.  
"You really want to seduce the cowboy, don't you?", he whispered and I felt my whole face heating up. My top had slipped further down my chest and revealed a good bit of my bra and my drunk-self hadn't even noticed this. I pulled it up immediately and took another sip of my glass. The game caught my attention again when the bottle had stopped before me. I had looked up and seen Lanna smiling brightly.  
"Oh, this is going to be fun.", she said and I could hear that she herself wasn't this sober anymore. I already hated her question before she could have asked it.  
"So... Have you and Daniel... slept with each other?" I almost choked on my drink, when everybody suddenly looked at me.  
"Why do I have to get that kind of questions?", I asked angrily and Julia had frowned at Lanna.  
"You can't ask her this.", she scolded her and Lanna simply shrugged.  
"Of course, I can.", she answered and threw back her long hair. "In the city, it's normal to ask questions like that. I mean, it would be boring otherwise, wouldn't it?" I hesitated and closed my eyes before I opened my mouth. I didn't get to answer the question because Daniel did so.  
"No, we haven't. We're friends! Best friends!", he babbled and I looked at him surprisedly. He winked at me and everybody was drunk enough to believe him. Everybody except Vaughn, whose look had darkened. I had spun the bottle and it had pointed at Daniel. Since I already knew everything about him, he took 'Dare' and I let him have two shots with a partner of his choice. He chose Shea, who was sitting next to him. They had talked very much this evening and I got the impression that they really liked each other. Everybody liked Shea and I was very happy about this. This was pretty much the end of the game since everybody was too drunk to continue playing it. Lanna had turned up the music and we started dancing wildly and we drank mercilessly. We had felt so light and young and free like there was nothing to stop us from being who we are.

Well, at this moment there didn't seem to be anything to worse our mood. But in the next morning, there were two things that did immediately when I had opened my eyes: My hangover and the muscular body pressed against mine.


	18. Chapter 18

"Denny! Denny! You can do this!", Lanna shouted like a fangirl would, while the fisherman tried to limbo a broomstick that was held by Shea. The jungle boy had started crying things in a foreign language when he hit this level of drunkness others would call their limit. I watched them as well, digging my toes into the sand and leaning on Daniel so I wouldn't fall. Lanna's self-made strawberry liquor was tastier than I had expected it and I had never been a person to consume much alcohol so it was my death and I had known it with every sip I had taken. We didn't know what time it was, there was nobody telling us to be quiet or something, I assumed Gannon was a heavy sleeper. Julia had slept in on Elliot's shoulder, which would usually cause Natalie to cringe but my pink-haired friend was occupied. She 'helped' Shea holding the broom for Denny and I smiled when I noticed glancing at Shea from time to time. I shook my head in amusement. Pierre was leaning on Vaughn's shoulder who looked like he was about to push the chef away. I left my comfortable position on Daniel and went towards the cowboy and almost stumbled over Julia but she didn't wake up. Vaughn looked up and met my gaze. I swallowed the saliva I didn't know had collected in my mouth. When I reached him, I had problems with stopping so I almost bumped into Vaughn, if he hadn't caught my arms and put me still. I started smiling involuntarily before babbling a short "Hey."  
"You're drunk.", he stated and I rolled my eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder to keep my balance.   
"You're drunk as well. And don't be so... so... I'm of age, you know?", I stated and I managed to make him smile again. Well, he smirked but it was Vaughn after all so it was like somebody was crying from happiness.  
"I'm not sober. And just because you're of age doesn't mean you're responsible or anything.", he answered and I felt the urge to hit him because he was so stiff and I was so not myself. I put my second hand on his other shoulder and stood tiptoe but there was no way I could even get on one height with him. There were approximately 35 centimetres between us and I felt like a dwarf next to him.  
"How can somebody this hot be this stuffy?", I asked. I had lost the ability to think before I opened my mouth an hour ago, so everything came out unfiltered. I noticed Vaughn blushing lightly and he pulled down his hat. I reached for the Stetson but failed and fell into him because my feet didn't want to carry me the way they usually would.  
"Stuffy?", he asked, still smirking and I felt my face heating up as well because he leaned forward and his face was actually pretty close to mine. I could even smell the rum he and Denny had drunk.  
"You are so grumpy and stiffy and you don't want to show how much you like me because you're so bad at socialising but I know you like me!", I mumbled and looked up at him with big eyes. His expression turned into an amused one.  
"I like you?", he asked and helped me stand upright again by grabbing my shoulders with his big hands. I tried to focus them but they were to close to my eyes. I blinked at him.  
"You like me.", I stated again and the self-confidence swole up to an extent that I hadn't experienced until then. "Because I am funny and nice." Vaughn shook his head before looking around. I followed his gaze and it rested on Denny and Shea dancing around a pit fire.  
"So you would prefer it if I was this drunk and danced around like an idiot?", he asked and I nodded cheerfully.  
"Because if you were this drunk, I would finally have the chance to actually touch your face.", I babbled and the cowboy in front of me rose his eyebrow when facing me again.  
"You want to touch my face?", he asked again and I was starting to lose my patience.  
"Of course. It's gorgeous. As are your eyes, by the way. But I already told you this.", I said and he blushed again. He sighed before stepping away and sitting down next to the fire pit. He took off his hat and lay it next to him in the sand and Denny let himself fall next to him. He gave him a cup of something and Vaughn chugged it. When he did so, I had a perfect view of his throat, which I never knew I had a fetish on. It was so... he looked so vulnerable and then his Adam's apple moved when he swallowed and then he actually smiled at Denny, who was pointing at Shea while shouting something. Natalie had accompanied me by then but I hadn't noticed this until when she started talking.  
"Since when do you know him?", she asked and I looked at her questioningly. "Vaughn? Pretty much since I moved here, why?", I answered and she rolled her eyes before punching my shoulder lightly. "Not this weird cowboy. I mean Shea." she whispered his name as if she was talking about a hidden treasure. I looked at her amusedly before telling her the story of how I met the jungle boy. She sucked in every word like a vacuum cleaner before going to him. I followed her and I overheard Natalie asking him about traps and hunting. Shea was ecstatic when he noticed her interest and started talking rapidly. Denny sprung up and ran towards Lanna before winking at Vaughn, who was still sitting near the pit fire and facepalmed himself. Then the fisherman went to him again, pulled on his arm. Vaughn refused to stand up but did so after Denny had started begging him to do so. I decided to draw closer to them and when Lanna turned the music louder and started playing old dance hits, I smiled brightly. I almost stumbled over Julia again and when I wanted to chide Elliot for not paying attention to her, I noticed that he was sleeping as well. Shea had grabbed Natalie by her shoulders and started dancing around her like in a traditional ritual. Lanna had started dancing on her own but was almost instantly accompanied by a fisherman, who was almost as drunk as she was and together they tried not to fall. I started to dance with Daniel wildly before I felt warm hands around my waist. I was spun around and bumped into Vaughn. He had lowered his head and when I looked up, our noses almost touched.  
"I'm just doing this because you won't remember this tomorrow and I might be a little drunk. And maybe because you might not be a bad person. And because you called me 'stiffy'.", his mouth was near my ears and I felt the chills running through my limbs. "And I might not be the loudest person but I'm nowhere near stiffy.", he whispered before actually intensifying the grab around my waist and started dancing with me.

When I woke up, I almost had a heart attack because there was this warm naked body lying next to me. It was quite muscular and when I moved, I noticed that I wasn't wearing anything either. I wanted to turn around but I stayed still when I felt this stinging in my head that indicated the huge hangover I had. I rotated slowly and covered my body with my blanket, pulling it away from the other person. The first thing I saw were plenty of dark brown locks that were muddled up. Daniel. I sighed before falling back into my pillow again. I groaned because my head hurt so much and because I had messed everything up. We weren't teenagers any longer, we were adults now and adults didn't do stupid stuff like this. I poked his shoulder until my friend turned around with a content smile on his lips. When he opened his eyes, it disappeared and he opened his eyes widely before looking down on his body and starting swearing.  
"Shit. Fucking shit.", he hissed and held his head. I nodded slowly.  
"Did we...?", I asked and I saw Daniel lifting the blanket and starting to shake his head.  
"You need to stop shocking me just like that. My old heart doesn't take this any longer.", he said before standing up slowly. I covered my eyes immediately. "Do you have something against headaches?", he asked casually and I slowly removed my hands from before my face. He wore his shorts and I sighed relievedly. I checked if I had something on and noticed my very attractive cotton panties. At least we hadn't been this stupid.  
"In the kitchen. Cupboard next to the door on the left.", I said. "Bring something for me as well.", I commanded and started looking for my bra. It was lying at least three metres away from my bed and I shook my head. Why had we done this? Daniel came back and stopped next to the garments on the floor. He smirked and I hated him for two whole seconds for doing so. "That's not funny.", I said before pointing at our clothes. "What came over us?", I asked.  
"Alcohol.", he replied before letting himself fall next to me, pulling at the blanket and revealing my bare breasts. I tried to get it back but he was too strong. I covered them with my hands, for the first time in my life I was lucky that they weren't too big. "I have seen them often enough before. So it wouldn't care if you run around naked in here.", Daniel stated and I sighed. It was true. I stood up, went to my wardrobe and selected something to take on. I pulled out one of his shirts and trousers as well and threw it onto my bed.   
"I'm going to be in my bathroom for the next few minutes and in this time you will remember what has happened to us yesterday.", I demanded before closing the door behind me. 

I had thought that waking up half-naked next to my best friend was bad enough but when I discovered this purple hickey on my neck, I almost started crying. I had always told Daniel not to make them but he enjoyed it far too much. I brushed my teeth, my breath smelled like I had forgotten about that yesterday, as well as I had forgotten to remove all the caked-on makeup on my face. "Yes, Chelsea. The only thing you removed happily were your clothes. Congratulations.", I muttered to myself before spitting out the toothpaste and taking a shower. I was still shaky on my feet but I needed to feel the cold water running over my back. When I left the bathroom again, fully clothed, of course, Daniel had put his things on as well. He passed me and went into the bathroom and some seconds later, I could hear his electrical toothbrush. 

I sat down on my bed and emptied a bottle of water. When Daniel came out of the bathroom again, he went into the kitchen and I followed him. He started scrambling eggs and I watched him doing so from behind. I felt no appetite at all.   
"We haven't had sex, at least.", he said and I placed myself on the counter next to him.   
"What makes you so sure of this?", I asked. "Only because we had parts of our underwear on?" I saw him shrugging.  
"I remember it. In pieces, but it's better than nothing. And I remember that we made out like hell and that we undressed each other and that we were moaning and I remember your fingernails scratching over my..."  
"Stop it!", I cried out. "Please, don't do this to me. This is already embarrassing enough.", I stated and Daniel tilted his head.  
"You are single, I'm single. That's what single people are allowed to do. And you were frustrated when your cowboy left you yesterday. So after all, you started this whole orgy.", he stated and I almost dropped the plate I had brought for him.  
"Don't call it an orgy. You know that it wasn't one. And what do you mean with Vaughn leaving?", I asked. Daniel's smirk returned to his face.  
"Of course I know that it wasn't an orgy. An orgy contains more people. Five at least, if I remember right.", he replied and I hit his shoulder. He was playing with my patience, as he always did. Usually, this was a funny thing but I found nothing amusing about this whole situation. He sighed. "The two of you were dancing really close and the two of you were touching really... closely, I'd say. Your faces drew closer to each other as well but when you were about to kiss each other, you stumbled over this sleeping girl and he suddenly picked up his hat and literally ran away. Weird guy.", he told me and this time, I dropped the plate in my hands. We were about to do what?! I started collecting the pieces of porcelain while trying to sort my thoughts but there was nothing in my head telling me what had happened. I believed Daniel, of course, but it would have been so much easier to comprehend if I still remembered doing it.  
"And then you were kind of sad and came to me and then you babbled something about reviving the old times and told me to leave with you. And I was too drunk to say no. Well, I wanted to tell you about the rest but you have interrupted me and didn't want to know it, so that's all. I guess, we stopped because we fell asleep. Alcohol, huh?", he explained and I felt this immense urge to hit him. When he finished cooking, he turned around and stopped in the motion. His smile was even brighter than before and his gaze rested on my neck. I placed my hand on it fastly and blushed. "This is a masterpiece!", he exclaimed excitedly.


	19. Chapter 19

A heavy scarf was folded neatly around my neck when I stood on the stage with Daniel, waiting for his boat to arrive. It had already been a week since he had come here and now he had to go back to Mineral Town. I would really miss him, even though the day before had been quite awkward with our whole situation going on. I hadn't told anybody about what had happened to us and there was no way I would change my mind about this. I didn't want anyone to judge me because of something I did when I wasn't myself. I had promised Daniel that I would go and see my parents soon because he was afraid they would come to him and wouldn't let him sleep because they would have too many questions for him to answer.  
"As long as you don't tell them anything about Saturday, I'm perfectly fine.", I had said and Daniel had winked at me. I had shaken my head and hit his shoulder lightly before hugging him. When his boat finally appeared on the horizon, I had a hard time not to start crying. He took my hand and squeezed it lightly. I looked up to him and I saw that his happy smile had faded. His brown curls were hanging into his face and his gaze had darkened before he sighed heavily. 

"I can't believe I'm already leaving. I'll miss you.", he said and I hugged him. When we let loose slowly, I heard fast steps on the stage. Both of us looked in the direction of the noise and we saw Denny running towards us. When he had reached us, he tackled Daniel and they almost fell off the stage if Daniel hadn't managed to catch him. I smiled at their more than manly behaviour.   
"I would come with you. But I have things to do.", Denny said curtly before patting Daniel's back. My best friend laughed.  
"Of course you do. You have to catch quite a lot of fish for my restaurants.", he responded and Denny rolled his eyes. I caught him looking over in the direction of Lanna's house.  
"There are plenty of fish in the water, you know? I could catch them anywhere. But somebody's waiting for me. She only doesn't know yet.", he explained and while I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes in annoyment, Daniel wiggled his eyebrows and his flirtatious look had returned to his face.   
"I'm sure she's going to find out soon if you do everything like we had figured out Saturday.", Daniel said and I didn't know whether to be suspicious or not about the plans they had obviously made about Denny and Lanna when they were drunk and tired. The boat had docked next to us and I felt tears burning in my eyes. I had always been bad at goodbyes.   
"You are going to take enough breaks from work and catch enough sleep, okay?", I asked Daniel while hugging him again and he started laughing.  
"Yes, mum, of course. And what advice could I give you... hm... Try not to jump right on that cowboy just because you're desperately looking for love.", he said and winked. I didn't know how often I had hit that guy in the last week but then it was three more times. I hissed his name while Denny started laughing.   
"Go now.", I demanded and pointed at the boat. He smiled at me and ruffled my hair before placing a peck on my cheek. "See you. And tell everybody from Mineral Town that I'm going to visit you as soon as I can. And hug my parents from me!", I said and he nodded. He said goodbye as well before stepping on board. Denny stayed with me and we waved until the boat had disappeared on the horizon.   
"Well, I'm going to go fishing now. Wanna join me?", Denny asked and I declined because I had something to do. 

Actually, I had somebody to meet. I said goodbye to Denny and stepped off the stage and crossed the beach. I went to West-Island and stopped in front of the wooden house that had a horseshoe nailed on above the front door. Today would be the big day of finally getting a calve. Or rather the day I would finally have Paula impregnated and therefore I needed the help of a certain cowboy. I entered Mirabelle's house and found myself in an empty room.   
"Hello?", I asked but nobody answered at first. Then, I heard something rumbling inside the kitchen and I decided to go and see what had happened. In there, I was greeted by a chaos that was nothing compared to the traces we had left at the beach after our party. "Julia!", I cried out when I saw my friend covered with... something that looked like gravy but smelled like an indefinable mess. "What are you doing? Mirabelle told you not to stay in the kitchen for longer than five minutes all by yourself!", I asked jokingly and the blonde darted a gaze at me.  
"Don't you dare to start as well... I wanted to ask Elliot to be my boyfriend today and I wanted to surprise him with a fancy dinner but I messed everything up again.", she explained and I smiled at her brightly.

"You really wanted to ask him?", I asked and she nodded. "That's really brave of you.", I said and she smiled lightly before looking down herself and sighing.  
"I guess, we are going to go to the diner again. I don't want to delay this thing any longer. I don't want him to lose interest because of me not being able to express my feelings.", she stated and I smiled at her reassuringly. Elliot knew as well as everybody else on these islands that Julia was the best that could ever happen to him. He wasn't in the position to lose interest in her and if he really did, he wasn't the right one for Julia, anyways.  
"He is going to say yes, don't worry. You know this as well, deep in there.", I said and pointed at where her heart probably was placed. "And Julia. Please. Don't always to try hard things like this. Try doing sandwiches or something first. And then you will be able to cook things like this after some time. Cooking is something one needs to learn step-by-step.", I told her and she sighed again before asking me what I actually wanted at her house. I had almost forgotten to go to Vaughn and ask him to do me this favour.   
"Mum's at Felicia's. I guess, they are drinking tea. But Vaughn is the one to do this kind of job anyway and he should be in the barn.", Julia informed me while starting to clean up the mess she had caused. I had offered to help her but she had told me to go and talk to Vaughn.  
"Who makes the mess has to clean it up.", she said more to herself than to me and I rose an eyebrow before leaving her alone in the kitchen. 

I went through the back door that led directly into the barn and found Vaughn leaning against a post casually, holding a pitchfork in his hand. I smiled immediately.  
"Where's the camera?", I asked him and started laughing when I saw his confused look. He closed his eyes before maintaining the indifferent expression he usually had on his face.  
"Where's the what?", he asked when I drew closer to him, trying not to step in any kind of faeces. I smiled at him brightly.  
"It's just that you are standing here like you were modelling for some kind of farmer's magazine. Do you know those calendars with the photos of naked fireman? Do you think they do those kinds of things with cowboys as well?", I asked and he coughed for a second. He pulled his hat into his face and I noticed his cheeks reddening. He sighed before looking up again.  
"When did we cross that line where you're allowed to say everything you think, no matter how much they would cause embarrassment to others?", he asked and I shrugged.  
"It's always funny to do this to you. And you kind of enjoy it as well.", I said and I couldn't name where this sudden courage came from but he didn't tell me to go away, so I figured he found my way of interacting with him refreshing.  
"You are annoying. So you either let me alone now or tell me why you came here in the first place.", he said and all the boldness that had gathered inside me disappeared. I felt myself literally shrinking when I sighed heavily.  
"I'm here because I need your help. I want to have my cow Paula impregnated.", I explained and he started asking several questions about her health status.  
"So we should go and see if she's okay and then I can give her the needed injections.", he said and pointed at the door. When I didn't move, he snorted and passed me and left the barn. I followed him quickly and we went to my farm without talking. I knew that he tends to say unfriendly things but it had been the first time, his words had actually hurt me and I couldn't explain why I suddenly cared. We arrived and he looked around my own small island. "You worked hard.", he acknowledged and I smiled again. I had planted quite a few crops, even some trees and bushes and I was happy to be able to watch them grow every day. And then, I was about to have a small calve which I was really looking forward to.

"Thank you.", I said while passing him and opening the barn door. I had my chicken and Berta grazing outside because the weather was nice and I wanted to bring Berta into a good mood since the cow festival was tomorrow and Mirabelle would come and get her that evening. Before, I would brush her the best I could and pet her as much as possible. We were going to win this competition and there was nothing to come into my way. Paula, on the other hand, had to stay inside because I wanted to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt when I wasn't present.  
"So, this is Paula. The two of you obviously know each other, since you sold her to me. She has a good life here, I guess. She eats every day and her excretions look normal as well.", I informed Vaughn who had drawn closer to my cow before kneeling down next to her. He took his time to observe her before standing up again and nodding approvingly.  
"She looks really good, actually. I'm going to prepare everything and in two weeks we can have a look if she really is pregnant.", Vaughn told me and thanked him for his service. I watched him preparing the injections and following the several steps of the procedure. I wondered, why he never became a vet, he was good at his job and he really seemed to enjoy caring for animals. When he finished, he stood up and went over to me.  
"How much do I owe you?", I asked. I didn't want him to simply leave again and I kind of had promised Julia that I would be friends with her cousin so he would warm up towards other persons as well. So I really needed to work on this relationship because there was no way, he would be the active part.   
"Mirabelle's going to write out a bill.", he responded and wanted to leave the barn but I stopped him. I didn't know what to say and so I stood there in front of him and I wasn't able to think of what I would do then. I reached for his arm so he would look at me and I felt the tension rising inside him.   
"Do you... maybe want to stay for a while? I could brew some tea for us. I don't have coffee because I only drink it rarely. I think I still have some cookies left from last week.", I asked and shifted nervously on my feet. Vaughn rose an eyebrow before shrugging.  
"Why not.", he answered and we left the barn again. We went inside my house and I noticed Vaughn looking around. He followed me into the kitchen and sat down at my table. I started the water heater and took some tea bags out of the cupboard.

"I don't really have much to offer... I got Darjeeling, Green Tea and something fruity that Julia usually drinks. I think it's with berries.", I spread the options out to him.  
"Darjeeling.", he answered and I had known it before. Of course, he would drink the black tea. I took out two cups and put tea bags into them. When the water had started boiling, I filled it into the cups and put them on the table and sat down across him.  
"Do you need anything? Milk? Sugar?", I asked because I didn't really know what to talk about but he declined. I was surprised when he actually started talking.  
"So, you throw this whole farm all by yourself?", he asked and I nodded proudly. He stirred in his cup and I could see that something was flashing in his eyes. "That's cool.", he stated and I felt like he had just told me that I was the most impressive woman on this planet.  
"Thank you, I am really proud as well.", I answered. "Do you think I have a chance of winning tomorrow?", I asked and he shrugged.   
"I think it was a good choice when you wanted Paula to have impregnated and not Berta. Because pregnant cows can't participate and even though she might not be yet, I wouldn't risk anything. Your cows actually look quite satisfied, I can tell you let them graze outside often." I only felt the pride inside of me growing. I wanted to reach for the sugar pot and spilt my tea all over the place. Well, actually it was only spilt on me and I took off my scarf hastily so I wouldn't burn myself. I sprang up and got some towels in order to wipe up the mess on the floor. Vaughn got up as well and kneeled down next to me and it had been the first time for us to be on one height. I smiled at him but he focused on the puddle in front of him. When we had cleaned everything up, I thanked him for his help.  
"That's nothing.", he replied and I noticed the corners of his mouth twitching. I blushed lightly because of how close we were and I thought about what Daniel had told me about us. I brushed my hair back and I saw his friendly expression fall. He looked petrified before shaking his head almost invisibly. He blinked twice before getting up hastily. He was about to leave the kitchen."Vaughn? What's going on? You still haven't touched your cup of tea. Do you have something to take care of?", I asked. Then I noticed his gaze that had returned to my neck and I blushed heavily. "Oh, that's... not what you think it is. Well, actually it is but I can explain... I..." The words wouldn't come out of my mouth properly and I was annoyed by myself. Vaughn had only this stern look on his face before turning to the door.  
"Don't worry. I really don't care much about Julia's friends, anyway.", he stated and I watched him leave my house. I wasn't able to respond anything so I kept quiet and when I saw him leaving the island, my synapses started connecting again and I processed his words with a delay of half a minute. There was nothing connecting us besides my friendship to his cousin.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm... I guess during all stress I went through in the last weeks, I kind of forgot to update this story, even though I already had written this chapter... I guess I'm simply posting the next few as well :) Thanks for all the kudos! I really appreciate this!  
> Have fun with this chapter :)

The day had passed by and I wasn't able to do anything besides doing what I had to do half-heartedly. I had prepared Berta for the cow contest and had brushed her long enough to make my hands feel sore because I simply had been struck by Vaughn's words. Nothing more than his cousin's friend. I couldn't help but feel miserable because we actually talked often.  
"No, Chelsea.", my own mind reminded me. "You know nothing about each other. Nada. If anything, he knows how annoying and insufferable you are." I sighed before letting myself slip on my sofa. When Mirabelle had fetched Berta, I wanted to ask her anything about her nephew but I had handled to keep myself together. On the other hand, I almost had shed some tears because of watching Berta leave her home. Even though it would be only for a day, I already missed her and I was sure, Paula would be miserable and lonely that night. I had already brought my livestock inside and I had even tended my crops twice afterwards. There hadn't been anything that could've brought me away from my island. I couldn't go to Julia because I didn't want run danger of seeing Vaughn again and I didn't want to feel his judging gaze on me. I couldn't take Denny's overly happy attitude right now and I hadn't seen Natalie since the day of our party. I took the pillow next to me and put it between me and my pulled up legs and sighed. I admitted that Vaughn and I really didn't know each other well and that the only thing that I would have called a connection between us was the undeniable attractions I felt towards him but I had absolutely no right to demand him feeling the same about me. And he had shown me what he really felt and I should have been grateful that he didn't simply pretend to be interested in me or anything. I decided to go to bed early because I wanted to be full of energy for the contest and I was sure that I wouldn't fall asleep easily that night. I lay in my bed for several hours and listened to the noises I could hear through the thin walls of my house and the slight rattling of the door when the wind became quite a bit stronger.

When I woke up from a dreamless sleep, I went into my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror while brushing my teeth. I noticed the bags under my eyes and how my hair was all messy and looked kind of bleached out from the hours of work under the sun. I thought that there was no point in changing anything of my appearance since there was nobody on this island I was interested in being attracted to me. On the other hand, I felt this urge to make somebody notice me and so I decided to at least conceal the dark circles under my eyes and the two spots that had appeared on my face out of nowhere. I even put some mascara on and I wrote a note and put it on my fridge so I wouldn't forget to ask Chen if he could get some hair dye so I could finally intensify my hair colour like I used to do it back home. I was sure that Julia would be ecstatic if I asked her to help me with it. I put on my work clothes but decided to change into shorts and a white blouse after tending my crops and feeding my animals. I hid my hair under my beloved red bandana and stepped out of my house. I went over to my field and was lucky enough to be able to harvest some crops. When I had watered everything and had plucked all the weeds, I went into my barn and continued to do my work. I have had quite a lot to do and when everything was taken care of, I wanted to follow my plans and get ready quickly but they were delayed by something being pinned to my door. I drew closer to the piece of paper confusedly before being able to read what was written on it. It was a handwriting I hadn't seen before. It wasn't messy but not neat either and I could tell how fast it had been done. It had taken me quite some time to process the words that were written on there:  
"I'm sorry. -Vaughn" I felt my body rush with a strange warmth and I couldn't help but smile. He had apologised for his words, which was something I hadn't expected at all. I hadn't even seen him since he had left my farm the other day and yet he had decided to say that he was sorry. And it was genuine because somebody like Vaughn would never do anything like this if he didn't mean it because he wouldn't care. I entered my house and put on clean shorts, my blouse and since I had simply felt like wearing them because of the light feeling inside me, the cowboy boots I had brought from home. I had been 19 when I had bought them and Daniel had always joked on me because he said that I looked ridiculous with my dwarvish height but I had loved them. And now I would wear them as a symbol of forgiving and I would look good.

I looked at my clock and noticed that I would need to go to Kirk, so I left my farm and went to the stage where Kirk had his boat and I seemed to be the only one left he was waiting for. Even though I was in time, there was nobody left on the main island. I felt the excitement rising inside me when I stepped on the boat and Kirk started the motor. On our way to the Meadow, we passed this one island nobody of us had ever visited. Gannon would need to build a bridge because the cliffs around it were too high and there was no point in going there by boat since nobody could manage to climb up there. It didn't take long for us to reach the Meadow and there were lots of balloons everywhere and there were quite a lot of people I had never seen before. I assumed that farmers from all over the country had come here in order to participate and for the first time I wasn't sure of winning at all. It was Julia who had helped me finding confidence again.  
"Oh, those people have no idea what they have to fear today. You know, they don't know you yet but after today they'll have a hard time forgetting you again.", she had tried to reassure me. Almost every islander had gathered on the Meadow, the only ones I couldn't spot were Sabrina and her father and I wondered if they ever participated in any kind of social events that weren't hosted by themselves.  
"Do you really think that Berta will win?", I asked and Julia nodded. I looked around because the person I wanted to talk to so badly wasn't present and I wondered why. "Where are your mum and Vaughn?", I tried to ask casually but couldn't suppress the bright smile when I said his name. Julia cocked an eyebrow at me before pointing in the direction of the stables they had constructed so the cows wouldn't just run around before the contest had started.   
"They have to care for the livestock, of course.", Julia explained and when she wanted to add something, a microphone was activated and there was an unpleasant sound coming out of the speakers.  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't really know how those devices work.", I heard Mirabelle's voice say through the speakers and I smiled because everything would start then. "So, today's our first Cow Festival on the Sunshine Islands and I'm very honoured to be your host. We have had a look at the behaviour of the cows when they were away from their known environment and we considered it in our rating. We also looked at their coat immediately after they were signed in, so the results wouldn't be deteriorated. Now we are going to milk them and have a look at the quality of their goods. After that, we are going to give out the final results and announce the winner.", she explained and my excitement grew with every word. I was absolutely ready for this and Berta was the most beautiful cow I had ever seen, so she would have a real chance to win this competition. I shifted on my feet nervously, until we participants were called out and we got to see our cows again. I stroked over Berta's nostrils and she mooed happily. I had really missed my cow after a day. How would I manage to visit my parents anytime soon if I couldn't even handle to give my cow to Mirabelle for a day?  
"First of all, we want to thank everybody who participated in this contest!", Mirabelle exclaimed and there was a small round of applause before Mirabelle smiled and took out an envelope that had all the results in it. "So, the third place goes to Charles from the Pinecone Farm! Congratulations! The second place goes to..." Chelsea from the.... did my farm even have a name? "Rebecca from the Leaf Farm! Congratulations!", Mirabelle continued and I felt my heart fell a bit. Hadn't I even managed to come into the top three? That really was disappointing. "And that means the winner is Chelsea from the Sunshine Islands' Farm!", she exclaimed happily and I stood there like petrified. "We are so proud of you!", she said and I shook my head in confusion. Had I won? Berta had won? I hugged the neck of my cow and stroked her back. I felt like I was sleepwalking because my legs seemed to carry me to Mirabelle and my hands took the prize money without me commanding them to do so. It was until Mirabelle hugged me when I had finally woken up from this state. The first person that came to my mind when I looked at the money in my hands was the one who helped me getting Berta healthy again in the first place. I looked around and when I saw Vaughn, I noticed that he was watching me as well. I felt my face heat up and my smile spread across my face and I ran towards him and couldn't help but hug him tightly. I was so happy because I had won and because he cared about me enough to pin notes on my door.  
"Vaughn! We made it!", I exclaimed and I felt the grip around me intensify. "I can't believe we made it." He hadn't said anything but I could feel his heartbeat next to my ears and the state I was in was better than any peace pipe Wada could have offered me. I pulled at his neck lightly and stood on the tip of my toes and before my brain could stop me, I had placed a feathery light kiss on his lips. It wasn't a real kiss because I didn't really feel our lips touching but I felt the heat rising inside my body and I would have fainted if my hormones wouldn't have pushed me this much. I blushed heavily before turning around and going to Julia who hadn't seemed like she had noticed this incident and I was glad about that. Denny and Lanna were standing next to her and I saw Natalie and Elliot drawing closer to them as well. All of them congratulated me and we started chatting about everything and nothing at once. I had looked at Vaughn, who was standing next to Mirabelle and Berta and when he noticed my gaze, I recognized this small but genuine smile on his lips and I felt like bursting with happiness.


	21. Chapter 21

I had always loved my birthday. It had used to be the day when my mum would cook anything I wanted to eat and when all my friends would gather at the beach and we would have small parties and it had always been great fun. But when I had opened my eyes on my 23rd birthday, it hadn't felt like a real one. Because my nose wasn't already catching the smell of pancakes and hot chocolate and there was nobody but my alarm to wake me. Usually, my dad would close his shop for the day so he could do my chores at the farm and I could sleep in but that wasn't the case today either. I glanced at my alarm which said 6 o'clock and sighed before standing up slowly. I skipped breakfast and brushed my teeth before changing into my work clothes and went outside.   
The summer had brought the sun back into the mornings and so I was greeted by a sunray shining into my face when I opened the front door. I tried to smile but I couldn't do so because I felt like something was missing. I shook my head before entering the coop where I took care of my chicken and collected four eggs. I expected my chicken to produce more and more eggs with the time but right then, I wasn't reliant on them and I was perfectly fine with one egg per chicken, especially because they had a really good size.

I entered the barn and milked Berta and stroke over her back. I thought she had already finished giving milk when I pulled away the bucket under her, but she simply continued so I hurried and put another bucket under her udder and she gave enough milk for another small bottle of it. I was grateful because I had feared lacking income due to of Paula's pregnancy but Berta had my back. I smiled while finishing my work in the barn and I decided to declare this birthday to a normal day like any other as well. If I couldn't be with my parents, then there was no point in trying to make this day special. I watered all my crops and had a long and luxurious bath in my tub. Well, maybe I would have made this day an especially good usual day. 

After that, I took a casual blue dress out of my dresser and changed into it. My mum had gifted me this some years ago when we had been in the city together. It had been an unusual thing to do for the two of us but it had been her birthday wish to travel there in order to go shopping with me like mothers usually did with their daughters. When I heard my stomach growling, I left my house again and went to the diner since it was already lunchtime. There were only a few tourists in there and I was surprised that I didn't even see Denny who usually ate in the diner every day. I took place in a corner of the restaurant and watched Nick drawing closer to me. He greeted me, I greeted back and ordered Spaghetti Bolognese. His pasta really was delicious, if not as good as Mirabelle's had been back when I had been invited to their house. Vaughn had been there as well. Vaughn... I sighed. After my raging hormones of happiness had left my body, I had found myself lying in my bed and staring at the ceiling. I had kissed him. Just like that. I had run over to him and kissed him and he didn't do anything and then I had no idea what that could have meant. He hadn't pushed me away for sure but he hadn't even come near me after it as well. I didn't even know whether I should confront him or not because I had to figure out what to tell him first. I didn't even know how I felt about him myself, how could I know what he's supposed to feel towards me then? I wanted this to be rational but then I felt like a teenager again when he touched me and the fact that we had danced twice and even kissed didn't improve this situation. 

After I had paid the bill, I left and decided to visit Denny on the beach but he was nowhere to be seen. I sighed before entering West Island again where I tried to enter Mirabelle's shop but it was locked. Was there a festival I hadn't noticed taking place? 

I stopped at Taro's where I put my animals' products and the crops I had harvested that day into the shipping bin and turned to face my farm. When I looked up, a bright smile spread all over my face. The Islanders. What had I done to deserve this? I ran towards a happy Julia who held a bundle of balloons in her hand and hugged her before she could congratulate me.  
"You are here!", I said and she nodded excitedly. She let loose of me and pointed in the direction of my field where the other islanders had taken at tables which were placed between my fields of tomatoes and corn and pumpkins. They had decorated everything with flowers and balloons and it was breathtaking to know how much they had cared to make everything look perfect. I felt tears rising in my eyes.  
"Of course we are here. All of us. We thought that we shouldn't throw a party like on Saturday because we didn't want to exclude the older people and so Mum had this idea of setting everything up on your farm. I had the idea of surprising you.", she explained and I hugged her again before going over to the others. Felicia and Taro were already sitting but everybody else stood in a row and when I drew closer to them, they shouted aloud: "Happy Birthday!". That had been too much for me. Something inside me had dissolved into tears and I started sobbing right where I stood. I wiped away my tears because I didn't want to seem ungrateful but I couldn't suppress it. I felt arms around me, heard soothing word being said to me but I couldn't stop.  
"Thank you.", I sobbed. "Thank you so much." I looked up and saw Julia looking down at me and smiling encouragingly before she took my hand and led me to the others. I had managed to gain my composure back and started smiling again. "I'm fine. Really, it's just that this is my first birthday away from home and I had felt so lonely all day long but when I saw you, I couldn't help but start crying because I'm so grateful to be here today.", I tried to reassure my guests and they responded with bright smiles and then Daniel drew closer to me and hugged me which kind of created a queue of people that wanted to hug me and wish me a happy birthday personally. It had taken quite some time until everybody sat and there was only one hug I had missed. But it had also been the one hug I wanted to receive most. Vaughn hadn't left his position next to the small buffet that had been set up. I tried not to show my disappointment and concentrated on the food. It looked delicious but the pasta in my stomach stopped me from starting to eat immediately.  
"Don't worry about this. We told Nick to make an extra small portion for you so you'd be hungry in a short time again.", Julia said and I smiled.  
"You had planned my visit to the diner?", I asked and she nodded proudly.  
"We figured you wouldn't sit in the farm all day on your birthday and we kind of hoped you'd simply go there so we could carry everything up here and we were lucky enough that you stayed on the East Island longer than we had thought you would in the first place.", she explained and I shook my head because I couldn't quite believe what they had done in order to celebrate my birthday. Taro stood up and came close to me and patted my shoulder lightly.  
"Of course this here is only taking place because you won yesterday.", he said and I laughed because I thought that he had made a joke. When he didn't even smile in return, I wondered if this was true. I watched him going back to his chair.

"Chels, you look amazing today.", Denny said when he stood next to me and I blushed because I knew that I had to look horrible after my short breakdown but I thanked him anyway. "You can go and see your presents, of course. They are waiting for you inside.", he added and pointed at my house."You even brought presents?", I asked and he nodded.  
"Of course, we have. They're nothing special, really, but it's better than nothing, I guess.", he stated and I hugged him again.  
"If they are from you islanders, they are wonderful.", I replied because it was the truth. I glanced at Vaughn behind him but he didn't look at me. He was here, after all, so he couldn't be too disgusted by me. Maybe Mirabelle had forced him to come. Maybe Julia had to help her get him here. I felt my smile fading and I noticed Denny's gaze on me.  
"Is everything okay?", he asked and I nodded slowly, not wanting to have to explain anything to him. Then I saw Lanna appearing behind him and I pointed at her.  
"I'm fine, really. You should go and talk to Lanna before she's getting bored or something.", I said and pushed him into her direction. He hesitated first but left me by myself again. Julia had accompanied Elliot at their table and just when I asked myself where Natalie was, said person touched my shoulder from behind and I smiled at her as brightly as I could right then.  
"I'm sorry I couldn't bring Shea but I didn't know where he lived and Mum wouldn't let me and Elliot visit the jungle without a guide.", she told me apologising and I waved off.  
"It would have been nice to see him again but I don't think birthdays are this important to him anyway. You like him, don't you?", I asked and she blushed.  
"He's a savage!", she said and tried to look away but she didn't move.  
"He's sweet, I know.", I said and she blushed even harder. "He's not a savage, he just grew up in the jungle but I'm sure it wouldn't take him long to learn several things about the way we live. Well, if you wanted him to.", I told her and she shook her head slowly.  
"How could I even meet him when I'm not allowed to go where he lives?", she asked and I lay a hand on her shoulder.  
"Well, I will be your guide then.", I said and she looked up again, something flashing in her eyes.  
"You would do that?", she asked and I nodded. Then I noticed a shadow hovering over me and I swallowed quite a lot of saliva before turning around slowly. I looked at a black button-up and I let my eyes follow the row of buttons up to Vaughn's throat where I had to clear my throat once again. I stepped back in order to look into his face and I saw the shadow that was thrown over his face by his hat. I wasn't sure where to put his expression. Was he angry? Was he annoyed? What was going on with him? Then he sighed and grabbed my arm before turning around and passing my fields of corn that had grown quite a bit. He didn't let loose until we reached my barn where he opened the door and pushed me inside. I didn't know what was going on when he finally started talking.

"I didn't know it would be your birthday today and to be honest, I don't really care much about birthdays in general but I assumed you would be happy if I had something for you but I don't have anything. So I'll guarantee that every time you have any kind of emergency on your farm or anywhere going on, I'm coming and help you without being annoyed or anything. At least, I'll make sure not to let you notice.", when I wanted to express, how grateful I was for this offer, he continued talking. "And I don't know why but you are not as annoying as others and after yesterday, I have no fucking clue what you would expect me to do but there's only one thing I have to tell you.", he said and stepped closer to me. I looked up and I felt my heart beating fast when his gaze met mine. Usually, I would have had hundreds of questions to ask him but he had switched off my brain again when had I smelled his aftershave. He grabbed my waist and lowered his head so we were even closer before he traced a finger around the area where the hickey was slowly but surely fading.  
"Don't you fucking dare to ever kiss another man again when I'm here.", he stated and I almost choked on my own saliva and felt my face heating up heavily but I had no time to think any further because his lips had already crashed down onto mine. It wasn't a gentle kiss and it wasn't anything like the way one would usually read it in those romantic novels. It was possessive and harsh but it transferred every single emotion that Vaughn felt then. It was exactly how I had imagined him kissing. He wasn't good at expressing his feelings with words and so he had to do it physically and at that moment I felt... adored. He had pushed me against the wooden wall behind me and I sighed into our kiss. I let my hand slip under his hat and the black Stetson fell to the floor. He didn't care at all. We were interrupted by a loud 'moo' that lonely Paula had made. I pushed Vaughn away hastily and saw his immensely increased pupils that made me shiver all over my body. He bent down and picked his hat from the floor. I tried to straighten my hair and noticed Vaughn's gaze on me. When he opened the barn's gate, I stopped him.  
"I'm flattered. I really am. And right now, I'm not able to understand everything that has happened. But there's one thing I need to tell you.", I told him the way he had said it before. He looked up and cocked an eyebrow questioningly. "Don't you dare to ever act like I belonged to you again as long as we haven't even gone on a date.", I stated and I saw a smirk forming on his face. He pulled down his hat and nodded before leaving the barn. When the door had shut again, I felt my legs getting weak and I let myself slip down on the wall he had pushed me against just seconds before. Everything would have been so much easier if I had had my hormones under control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's getting intense! At least kind of, I guess :D  
> Do you know the problem of babies trying to delete your chapters? Well, I just had it, my 8 month year old nephew... OH MY GOD DON'T TOUCH THIS!   
> He already pushed all the buttons one could at his grandparents' house and I slowly but surely get the feeling that I'm the worst babysitter ever. Why did they leave the two of us all by ourselves?!   
> Well, anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I would be very happy if you told me what you thought about it :)


	22. Chapter 22

When I had left the barn, everything seemed to be as always. Nobody had noticed Vaughn and me leaving and if they had, they surely thought that the two of us had to look after my animals. Well, everybody but Julia who had run over to me as soon as I had come back to where the party had been going on. She had grabbed my arm and pulled me into my house. She surely was related to her cousin, the way she forced me to come with her. I had sighed and followed her without saying anything and at first, I had thought that she may be angry or something. When we had entered my hut though, she had started smiling brighter than ever and I could have sworn that her eyes had a certain sheen to them.  
"So, when are you and Vaughn going to make everything official?", she asked me and I backend in surprise. I stared at her, wide-eyed and looked around nervously. There were lots of small packages placed on my kitchen table.  
"Do you know who brought what? I would really like to thank everybody in person for the presents.", I asked, trying to change topic lamely. Julia rose an eyebrow and shrugged.  
"I guess, everybody has put his or her name on it. But that's not the point!", she exclaimed and pointed at me with her index finger. "You and my cousin obviously have something going on and you haven't told me yet so you are going to do so no. So: When is your wedding going to take place and what shall I wear as your Maid of Honor?", she asked and I had to start coughing unwillingly.  
"Vaughn and I don't have anything going on. We are not together, we don't even spend much time together. And there's no need for you to plan our wedding because it won't take place anywhen.", I stated but the blush rising to my cheeks betrayed me. Julia smiled triumphantly and clapped her hands together.  
"Do you know how I know about the two of you?", she asked and I shook my head.  
"Well, obviously your source wasn't reliable because we're obviously not together or anything.", I said and tried to stay calm and not to blush furiously when I thought of his lips crashing down onto mine, those soft, soft lips and his breath tickling on my face. How was it even possible that anything like this happened? I meant, how anything of this wasn't some kind of dream that would make me wake up all embarrassed and pink-faced. Of course, only the thought of kissing Vaughn made my heart beat slightly faster and Julia noticed that my thoughts weren't with her in my house right now."Who are you trying to kid?", my best friend asked and I sighed, sinking into my sofa. I brushed my hair back and tried to explain everything to her, even though I had no idea where to start.  
"Everything was way too fast, obviously. We haven't done much together, actually. We danced at Regis' and then on Saturday when I was drunk and he was... well... at least tipsy, Daniel told me that he and I danced together again, a little bit more... intimate, I guess and we almost kissed each other but then I stumbled over you and then...", I tried to catch some breath while rambling, "I had my cow impregnated, you know? And then he got jealous because of Daniel and he said some rude things but he apologized the next day, which actually was yesterday and then I was so happy and after I won the cow festival, I was even more ecstatic and then I kind of... kissed him.", I stopped in order to concentrate on Julia's reaction that seemed more like the sound a mouse would make rather than something out of a human mouth. I sighed again and Julia looked at me like a puppy waiting for treats.  
"And what's the problem now? This sounds wonderful!", she replied to my rambling and I shook my head slowly.  
"This isn't the end of it all, actually. Some minutes ago, the two of us were in my barn and he kissed me and it wasn't this romantic kiss one would usually want in a situation like this but it was rather possessive and..." I had to stop because my brain hadn't proceeded all information until then. What was this between Vaughn and me now? Did he agree on going on a date with me? Was there a chance of us even getting to know each other or was this more of an erotic affair where we would never have any connection? My thoughts were interrupted by another squeal coming from Julia.  
"To be honest, I don't want to know this many details about how my cousin kisses because it's kind of disgusting. But! You really need to tell me everything about what the two of you are up to as soon as you know. Maybe I could help you, now that everything between Elliot and me is fixed.", she said and I shook my head slowly with a small smile on my face. She and Elliot actually handled to kiss each other the other day but they still weren't officially together. I guessed they didn't know how to tell their families so they tried to keep everything a secret. Not that it wasn't like everybody on these islands knew about it long before they actually knew about their relationship because both of them had been too shy. I stood up and drew closer to my kitchen table where all my presents were resting.

"I need to distract myself a bit or I'm going insane. Are you going to stay here, relationship-specialist?", I asked and picked up a random present. It was wrapped in light yellow paper and an orange bow was resting on top of it. I turned it around so I could read the name that was written on it.   
It felt like every Islander gifted me something they thought I could need but wouldn't think of purchasing. I got a pretty flower-bouquet from Felicia and Taro added a pretty vase to it. Mirabelle had gifted me a new brush for my animals and some bottles of glass in a variety of sizes so I had more to fill my milk in. Gannon had gifted me a grindstone, which actually was quite heavy, so I was able to sharpen my axe from time to time. Eliza had pinned a note to it which said that the bow that was wrapped around it, was meant as a gift as well and that she was sure it would match my eye colour. It was indeed a pretty blue colour and I had put it in my drawer where I also kept several bandanas. Chen and Charlie had gifted me several items from their store, including some rice, coffee and a bottle of wine. Chen had also given a small piece of paper to me, which said to be a voucher for five bags of seeds of any plants, which I was really grateful for. When I had seen that Natalie and Elliot had gifted me something as well, I had felt this big smile creeping up on my face. They really wouldn't have to do so. I unwrapped a total of five books that finally weren't about farming like the ones their grandpa had given to me but real books with what I hoped to be suspenseful stories. Denny had gifted me some bait and a bucket for my fishing trips without him and I tried to ignore the fact that Lanna had signed his card as well. I really did my best not to dislike her and on Saturday everything was fine but I simply couldn't manage to warm up towards her. The gift which probably had surprised me most was the one Sabrina and her father had selected for me. Well, I guessed Regis had left the decision to his daughter since it was a pretty dress out of silk. It was in a light green and even when I touched it, I had already felt the shiver on my back because of how soft and precious it was. I had decided to thank Sabrina first for her present, simply because I was so perplexed and appreciative at the same time. 

After Julia had told me that she would give me her present at another time, I left my house and went over to where Sabrina had taken place next to Mirabelle and Felicia. She looked so lonely that I almost sighed because nobody of our age had even tried talking to her in order to make her feel more comfortable and then she was sitting there and reading. Usually, Vaughn would talk to her, at least. I didn't know what they thought of each other but I felt that they were quite similar in a way nobody would think of, at first.  
"Sabrina, I don't know how to thank you for this gorgeous dress.", I said while hugging her. She first stiffened in my arms but after some seconds of adjustment, she hugged me back lightly.  
"It's your birthday, Chelsea. And with all the work you have already done for this islands, it's a matter of fact that you deserve a present like this and I really hope you like it.", she explained quietly and I couldn't help but hug her a second time.  
"I love it, Sabrina. Thank you so much.", I said and looked around in order to thank Regis as well.  
"Father is not present any longer, he has to fulfil his duties for the company.", Sabrina informed me and I saw the hurt look in her eyes. I wondered if he has ever had time for Sabrina besides their work together. I gestured her to come with me when I saw Julia, Natalie and Elliot sitting next to Lanna on a blanket between my crops.   
"You shouldn't sit here all by yourself. I'm sure you're going to have a good time with us.", I told her and she shrugged before getting up. He placed herself next to Julia and I let myself drop next to her.   
"The two of you have a good timing. We were just about to discuss what Vaughn's up to right now because he doesn't seem annoyed right now.", Lanna stated and I tried to suppress my blush again and this time I managed to do so. I shrugged before answering.  
"I guess, he got enough sleep and is happy that his holidays are finally coming to an end.", I said and I saw Julia smirking next to me.  
"Yeah, that's totally why he's acting so different today.", she responded and I hit her in my imagination. She looked at me for a second before she continued to talk. "I think it's because of someone. Someone special." I had a hard time not to get up and simply go away because of Julia being annoying and making me feel uncomfortable in a way only real friends could. I tried to catch a glimpse of Vaughn who was talking to Denny while sipping on a glass of milk. I smirked. Only Vaughn could make drinking milk look manly.   
"Do you think he has a girlfriend in the city?", Lanna asked and I suddenly felt like someone kicked in my gut. Of course. How could I have forgotten? The girl in his bedroom when Julia phoned him, begging him to come back and... finish what they had started was what I guessed she had said. When Julia shrugged, I stood up hastily and excused myself. I saw a sorry look on her face but I promised to myself that I wouldn't act like a teenager now. Just because he had slept with somebody wouldn't mean that there was anything going on between them, right? And how long ago had that phone call been anyway? I felt the urge to go to him and ask him right away but I decided not to do so. When I saw the suspicious look on Lanna's face, I reached for the back of my head and tried not to blush because I had acted weirdly.  
"I'm going to find out about this.", I tried to express confidently but I failed. I saw Natalie's eyebrow rising and I shrugged before turning around. "Don't act like you wouldn't want to know yourself!", I exclaimed before going over to Vaughn and Denny.

"And then she pulled this enormous fish out of the water and she caught it with ease and I didn't need to help her, at all! She's so... Oh, hey Chelsea!", Denny exclaimed and I rolled my eyes. I had often heard him gush about Lanna but the fact that he even did so in front of Vaughn annoyed me even more. I greeted him back and turned to face the cowboy.  
"Hey there, Vaughn. I think we haven't had the chance to talk to each other today, have we?", I asked and I saw him rising an eyebrow. Then he pulled his hat down and nodded to me as a greeting. Denny couldn't decide who to look at confusedly so he just looked at one of the two of us alternately.   
"I could have sworn that I have seen the two of you coming out of your barn, Chelsea. Well, not together but I guess, the two of you were in there together.", he said suspiciously and I looked at Vaughn. He simply shrugged and I sighed."I said that we haven't had the time to talk to each other today. That doesn't mean that he hasn't helped me with my cows today. You know, I had Paula impregnated two days ago and he checked in on her.", I explained. "I guess, I don't have to tell you that Vaughn isn't the person to do small talk with while working.", I added and Denny smiled brightly and punched Vaughn's shoulder lightly who sighed heavily. "I guess, you're right. Hey, Vaughn! Why don't you join me fishing one day? I'm sure that would be great fun." When Vaughn declined, I saw Denny's shoulders sinking.  
"That's not because of you. He's not that fond of getting up early, you know?", I responded and Vaughn sighed again.  
"You know that I'm here, right?", he asked and I blinked at him in surprise.   
"Sure we know that why?", I asked and he rolled his eyes.  
"Because you're only talking about me and not with me.", he stated and I noticed Denny reaching for the back of his head. He apologized and I felt my cheeks reddening. I didn't want him to think badly of him, so I apologized as well, looking into his beautiful eyes.  
"Not that I would mind, anyway.", he said before turning around and leaving for the buffet. Denny decided to go over to Lanna and so I had to do something. I either accepted Vaughn's moodiness or I would try to make him feel better. But what if he didn't want to socialize at all and I was the reason he had to leave one of his only friends on the island and stay all by himself then? I sighed and followed him. 

When I reached him, I touched his shoulder in order to make him turn around. He looked at me and the look on his face was more indifferently than I hoped it would be. Hell, he had kissed me maybe an hour ago and then he was acting like nothing had happened so far.  
"I'm sorry, Vaughn. I really am. And I want you to know that I want to get to know you." I made sure that nobody would hear our conversation before continuing to talk. "I really enjoyed our kiss in the barn and it would be a lie if I said that I wouldn't want to repeat it but you have to promise me that you want to get to know me as well. That this wasn't just because you wanted to kiss someone.", I whispered to him and I saw him stiffening in his movements. He looked down to me and I saw the lines around the corners of his mouth indicating a small smile.   
"I guess, I'll give it a try.", he said and I felt the heat rising in my body. I could have sworn that my heart had jumped a little.  
"So you want to go on a date with me?", I asked quietly and he shrugged. I felt my mood falling again but it was caught by the flashing in his amethyst eyes.  
"I guess, that's what one's supposed to do then. Let's meet here tomorrow afternoon. Don't have high expectations or anything, I'm not good at things like that.", he suggested and I nodded happily before leaving for my friends again. How could it possibly be that everything had turned out like this in only two days? Since when were things going this rapidly and why did my heart jump every once in a while when I caught a gaze from Vaughn on me?


	23. Chapter 23

"Okay, Chelsea. You need to calm down now. This is a day like every other one. This date isn't a reason to be nervous...", I muttered but failed to convince myself. It all had started when I had finished all my chores and went inside to have a shower. There I had noticed for the first time that my shampoo smelled like coconut – Obviously, I had known this before but I never really minded – and I had no idea whether or not Vaughn would like my hair to smell like coconut. On the other hand, it was my decision and I loved the smell of it, so I had shaken off this worry and used the product no matter what. Vaughn wouldn't mind how I smelled anyway, as long as I didn't reek. Then the drama had continued when I had stood in front of my mirror and had seen the dark circles that still rested under my eyes and probably would never leave. I had decided to cover them and soon every single spot on my face was covered. Then I had thought that there were more spots covered with makeup than without, so I had decided to fill in the rest as well. And when I had come to this point there hadn't been an opportunity to stop because I had felt like I could improve my complete appearance with one stroke. And then I had been standing there, with an almost flawless face and I felt like I had put a mask on. I had decided to leave it on because I looked quite pretty and I completed my look with a matching outfit. At least, I had tried to do so. But there hadn't been a single pretty garment left in my dresser that fitted the occasion so I did what I had never done before: I opened the box in which I had stored Julia's blouses and put one on. It had a light yellow which looked pretty on my more tanned skin. I combined it with a jeans shorts and admired myself in the mirror. I reminded myself of one of those girls one could see in the movies walking down the streets of a big city. I really needed to ask Julia where she got her clothes from because this blouse looked gorgeous. But in the same moment, I realized that even if I had the chance to buy more clothes for myself, I still was a farmer and I wore pretty clothes like those maybe twice a month. 

The clock ticked. It ticked loud and reminded me every second what time it was. And it was four o' clock already. Why hadn't I asked when afternoon was for him? When would evening start on Vaughn's timetable? I sat at my table and cleaned the last bit of dirt from under my nails and fumbled on a bandana in my hands. I hadn't looked at the clock when I had started waiting for Vaughn to knock on my door but I was sure I had been sitting there for at least two hours. And that was way too long, I decided and got up, not sure what to do. At first, I thought of simply going into town and seeing what else I could do but my confidence didn't want me to ignore the fact that Vaughn hadn't come and fetched me but wanted me to confront him with my wrath. If it had been at least wrath I had felt at this moment but all I could have thought about was how tiny and lost I had felt. I got up, no matter what and went straight to the front door, opened it and stepped outside my house where I was greeted by a warm summer breeze on my face. The sunrays had managed to tickle a small smile out of myself and I felt a little bit lighter on my way down to Mirabelle's where I almost ran against the closed door because it wouldn't open. I looked up in confusion but couldn't see any note saying that the shop would be closed today. Where would Vaughn be then? Did his boss call and order him back to the city and he didn't have time to tell me? I turned around in order to go to the beach when I heard a noise coming out of Mirabelle's barn. I stepped over the fence carefully and drew closer to it. When I reached the barn's back door, I could hear the strange noises clearer now. It sounded like a cow but I had no idea what was going on in there, so I opened the door faster than I could have thought about if I just broke into Mirabelle's house.

"Chelsea! You are here! Thank goddess, you need to help us!", I hear Julia's voice shout and I followed it into a small stall where a cow had laid down on a bed of hay. Vaughn knelt next to her backside and Julia greeted me with a hasty hug. My gaze fell on Vaughn, who had a worried look on his face while he watched the cow breathing. When I entered the box, he nodded to me while his eyes met mine and he seemed like he wanted to say something through them. I simply nodded back and let Julia explain what was going on.  
"You know, mum had to go to another town because another animal trader needed her help and everything had to go very fast. At first, we wanted to send Vaughn, but...", she trailed off and looked behind her at her cousin who had cocked an eyebrow at her. "...he excused himself because he had something else to do today. And look at you! How gorgeous you look today!", she exclaimed and nodded approvingly. I looked at Vaughn who was still sitting next to the cow and stroke its back slowly. I felt his look on me and blushed slightly what caused Julia to squeak.  
"Aww, you two sure are adorable.", she stated and I blushed even heavier.   
"Julia, we need to watch out and be focused.", Vaughn mumbled but Julia's synapses must've finally connected when she almost jumped in joy.  
"You were about to go on a date!", she cried out and Vaughn pulled his hat over his eyes while I tried not to look too disappointed about the fact that we were in a barn right now and not in wherever Vaughn had wanted to take me. We weren't even alone. Julia must've noticed my sudden sadness because she had started patting my shoulder lightly. "This was an emergency, you know? She's calving and Vaughn has to watch out for the baby to come. Because I have never done this on my own and mum's not here and... You know, he could never leave an animal alone if it needed his help.", she whispered in my ear and I sighed heavily before kneeling down next to Vaughn.  
"What can I do?", I asked. Vaughn looked up and I noticed the surprise in his eyes. He didn't expect me to help him? Didn't he know me at least a bit? "Of course I am going to help you. I'm here now, anyway. Wouldn't make much sense to leave now and I grew up on a farm if you remember. I know what to do when a calve is coming.", I explained and a smirk formed on his face.  
"I appreciate that.", he said and I smiled at him. Julia had placed herself next to us on a ball of hay. She looked at her nails and sighed heavily.  
"I don't know for how long we have been sitting here and waiting.", she sighed and I looked up at her. "And I can't believe that this prevents your date. I could leave if you want me to.", she offered but I declined.  
"You should stay here. We can always go on dates if we wanted to but a calve isn't born every day here. And we like your presence. Well, at least I do.", I joked and my best friend started rambling about how great I looked that day. Sure, I had dressed up in order to look good but I felt slightly uncomfortable when she said those things around Vaughn. Which actually seemed kind of silly, since he was the reason I had put on makeup and pretty clothes. Pretty clothes... I looked down at myself and shook my head.  
"I think I need to go back to my farm and change. I really want to ruin your blouse, Jules.", I informed them while getting up.  
"Oh, this is mine? I already wanted to ask you where you got this from, it's pretty.", she replied puzzledly and I rolled my eyes. When did somebody reach a point where he had so many clothes that he didn't even remember which pieces he already owned? I smiled at her but when I wanted to leave, she stopped me. "Here", she said and handed me the keys to their home. "Just borrow a t-shirt of mine, I should have some in the dresser next to my door inside the top drawer.", she explained and I nodded thankfully.  
I entered the house and let my feet lead me into Julia's room, where I opened said drawer and took out a simple dark green shirt I had never seen being worn by my best friend. I actually had never seen her wearing a t-shirt before, even that day she wore a nice crop top under a white blouse. A white blouse! She was about to pull a calve out of a cow! Probably Vaughn would have to do this. I hesitated for several minutes before I left the house again, I had thought about paying Vaughn's room a visit but I decided it was best to simply leave and let it be. I didn't want to sniff around in his room even though I felt this urge to get to know him. But this would need to happen the right way, even if that meant that I would never know what was going on inside his head. I had brought some bottles of water with me since I had no idea how long the procedure would take but Julia's excited squeals told me that it had finally started. I ran back to the box and caught Vaughn whispering words into the cow's ear. There were already feet coming through but something seemed to be wrong.  
"What is it?", I asked and kneeled down next to the cow's backside. I tried to recognize what was going on but there was too much blood around the amniotic sac.   
"It might come out the wrong way round. I can't recognize it yet but I know that there's something wrong with her." I nodded and started stroking the cow as well. She cried out and pushed quite a bit. More and more of the calve came out but as Vaughn had been afraid of, there was no head to be seen but another backside. Vaughn had seen this as well and jumped over to where I sat and I looked up to him.  
"What are we going to do?", I asked him scared and he sighed heavily. Julia behind us was standing there, paler than I had ever seen her. I wanted to go to her and comfort her but I had no idea what to say and I couldn't go away right then. I needed to at least try to help Vaughn and the cow.  
"There isn't much to do at this point. We can only hope that it comes out alive. If anything we could try to support it once it's born but we can't help her pushing. Let's hope everything will be okay.", Vaughn sighed and I frowned at him. I had often seen animals dying while childbirth and I had often seen calves dying right after they came to this world but I had never gotten used to it. How could I have? He started whispering calming words to the cow and I forgot all the trouble around us for a short moment. The way his face had softened when he had started talking to the animal again, had surprised and I had felt my heart beat faster for a second. Julia sat down next to Vaughn and stroked the cow's nostrils slowly while she pointed in my direction.  
"It's going to be here soon, we should swap positions.", she explained and Vaughn nodded. He took off his hat and hung it on a rusty nail that was hit into the wooden wall. When he placed himself next to me, our arms touched and I looked up to him involuntarily, my eyes led my gaze to his eyes and I saw how concerned he was.   
Suddenly, the cow mooed loudly and everything went fast from then. With two last pushes, the calve had been born and Vaughn had immediately gone to its side in order to check if it was okay. When I wanted to go over to it as well, Julia had held me back with her hand.  
"Human contact might interrupt the bonding of mother and calve. Vaughn himself shouldn't be there now anyway but I guess there's no way he couldn't do anything. Why isn't it moving...", she muttered an I had noticed as well that the calve simply lay there. Slowly but surely, the cow got up and turned around in order to lick away the rests of the amniotic sac. When the mother had arrived at her baby, the calve suddenly started to shiver and Vaughn sighed out released, got up and went over to where Julia and I had watched the procedure.  
"We were lucky today.", he said and I smiled at him and nodded. "Thanks for your help.", he muttered to me and I smiled even brighter if that had been possible.  
"There's no need to thank me. Of course, I would help if there was a cow in danger. And look at how cute the small one is." I waved off and pointed at the calve that had finally started moving and slowly tried to get up. Probably the lack of oxygen had weakened it quite a bit and Vaughn would need to observe it for some time in order to be sure if it had taken any further damages. "And I really needed to freshen up my knowledge a bit so there won't be a problem when Paula gives birth to her baby.", I added and Vaughn smiled lightly.  
"Gonna make sure that I'm here when this happens.", he stated and I felt the urge to hug him. I didn't of course, even though my hormones clearly told me to do so when his gaze fell on me and I felt my cheeks reddening.  
"I guess, I'm going over to Elliot's now. He sure is waiting for me. We had wanted to go to the beach. Do you want to come with us?", she asked and I declined. Even though that day was an exceptionally nice day, I didn't feel like meeting up with the couple. When Julia had left the barn, there was an uncomfortable silence and even Vaughn must've noticed this. He cleared his throat and I looked up to him questioningly.  
"I should have told you somehow that I wasn't coming. I'm sorry.", he apologized but I shook my head lightly.  
"How could you have? I mean, there was an emergency, Mirabelle isn't here and you couldn't have known when the calve would be born. You really don't need to apologize.", I reassured him. I felt the blush creeping on my face and Vaughn smirked. "Maybe we should go and celebrate this happy day?", I asked and Vaughn took his hat off the wall. He put it on his head and pointed at the door. "Right after you.", he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the last chapter I have written so far but I'm going to start chapter 24 today :) Maybe I'll finish it in some hours or maybe tomorrow! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I would appreciate it if you let me know via Review or Kudos :)


	24. Chapter 24

"Do you like wine? Chen gifted me some for my birthday.", I asked Vaughn while thinking about what I could cook. We had decided to go back to my farm in order to complete this already good day and so Vaughn wouldn't have to feel guilty because he hadn't taken me to a date that day.  
"Why not... tomorrow will be my last day of holidays and Mirabelle already told me that she wouldn't have anything to do for me. So maybe I'll even have the chance to sleep in.", he replied and I rolled my eyes.  
"I didn't mean if you wanted to get all drunk and waisted, but if you wanted to have a glass of wine.", I said and opened my cupboard. Chen had known what I had needed most when he had created the basket he had given me. I pulled out a pack of pasta and took some tomatoes out of my fridge. I also took out the small piece of cheese I had purchased from Chen some days ago. Together with some herbs, this could get quite good. Not as good as Mirabelle's spaghetti of course, but good. Vaughn stood up from his chair and went over to where I stored my glasses and took two out. "I'm afraid I don't own real wine glasses, usually I don't have anything but water in here to drink.", I said and pointed at the glasses Vaughn taken out. He looked at me and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.  
"Believe me, I don't care at all where we drink this out.", he answered and went over to me. We were so close that I already felt his heat on my arms. "Spaghetti?", he asked and I nodded."Well, not actually spaghetti, I have no idea how this pasta is called and I don't really know how to make any traditional sauces. To be honest, my cooking is not the best but I thought I simply could put some toma..."  
"No need to get nervous.", Vaughn interrupted my rambling. "I can help you. You know, I have been living from my cooking for quite a few years now, so I'm sure we can make something.", he reassured me and I sighed. I handed him a cutting board and some tomatoes. "Do you have any more vegetables?", he asked and I shrugged.  
"I'm a farmer after all. I'm going to have a look if there's anything I can harvest.", I replied and took on my rubber boots. "Anything else I can get?", I asked and opened the front door.   
"Do you have cream or something?", Vaughn wanted to know and I felt my cheeks reddening.  
"You know, I don't really know if it's digestible, but I actually tried to make some cream myself. It's in the small blue container in the fridge. Maybe you could try a new one. You need milk and butter, both should be found inside there as well.", I explained and stepped outside. I went over to where my corn grew and harvested a cob. Then I noticed that there were two ripe bell peppers in the corner of a field, so I collected them as well.   
"Hey Chelsea, I didn't expect the post boat to arrive this late but the captain told us that there had been a storm, so the arrival had been much later than planned. There's not much for you but a letter from Mineral Town. I thought you might find it important to read it right away.", Natalie's voice appeared behind me. I turned around in surprise and Natalie came closer and handed me the letter she had told me about. "Actually, I don't have much time, apparently Julia has ordered some things from the city and I don't want to let her wait.", she explained before saying goodbye and leaving. I waved in return and looked at the letter in my had that my mother's cursive handwriting on it. Mum...  
When I entered my house again, I didn't care about taking my boots off, I let the vegetables fall on the table next to me and took place on the chair to my left. I opened the letter hastily and didn't notice Vaughn grabbing what I had brought from inside and I didn't notice that he had already started pouring all kinds of things into a pot.  
"Your parents?", Vaughn asked and I winced unwillingly. I nodded and looked up at him. It felt like he sensed that I simply wanted to read it and looked back into the pot without saying another word. 

Dear Chelsea,

It has been quite some time now since you moved away to the Sunshine Islands and for your father and me, it has felt like an eternity. I know, you moved there because you wanted to show us how independent and strong you are, and you surely proved this, but you being this far away showed that we're nowhere near being independent of you. We need you here. Not because we are not able to live on our own but because we don't want to. At least not when you're not visiting us from time to time.  
Obviously, we know how much a farmer has to do, but we are sure that you have found many friends where you are that could care for your farm for some time.  
We don't want to be those annoying parents that want too much attention from our one and only child but, you know, we are getting older and older every day and we really want to get to know your friends before we are grumpy and senile. So do you want to take this invitation and come and visit us? You don't even need to answer, we will always be here in Mineral Town. Oh, and I'll simply write again if you haven't been here until next month, Daniel told me that your post boat comes once a month, this should be enough to get you to come here.

We are already waiting for you,  
Love,  
Mum and Dad

PS: Happy Birthday Honey, maybe this letter arrives you in time!

I had felt tears rising in my eyes while reading what my mum had to say. I had always thought that they would miss me once I would be gone, but I hadn't noticed how little they had heard of me in the last months. I didn't even call them on my birthday and they didn't know how to reach me other than via letters. I heard Vaughn rummage around in a cupboard, looking for plates. I got up hastily and let the letter on the table. I went to where I stored the plates and took out two.  
"I'm sorry I let you cook alone. I... you know, I just got this letter and I hope there's anything I can do in order to thank you.", I stated and Vaughn smirked.   
"No need to apologize. See it as an excuse for the date I had been supposed to arrange today.", he answered and put the piece of Parmesan cheese in my hand. "You could grate it as a topping.", he suggested and I nodded. I started doing so but I couldn't focus my mind on my task.  
"Vaughn?" he looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow. "We need to go to Mineral Town.", I said and a small smile formed on his face.  
"Okay.", he replied and I stopped in motion.  
"Okay?", I asked and he shrugged. I watched him carrying the pot and putting it on the table.  
"Well, you would need to come with me to the city first, but this will only be for a day. And then the first stop would be Mineral Town. After that, I usually need to go to Bluebell, a small village in the middle of nowhere, but I'm sure there would be a boat going from Mineral Town to the city. And from there you could come back here. So, okay. I don't really mind if you come with me.", he explained. I rolled my eyes before hugging him shortly.   
"You don't need to suppress your happiness, Vaughn.", I joked and he grunted amusedly.  
"Sit down and eat.", he commanded and I did as he told me. I poured wine into our non-appropriate glasses and held mine up.   
"Cheers.", I said and looked at him eagerly but he didn't say cheers back. I pouted feignedly and he shook his head.  
"You really miss them, don't you?", Vaughn asked while handing me my plate that was filled with damping pasta and an indefinable sauce that was a mixture of possibly everything edible I had in my house. It smelled incredibly delicious.  
"I do. My parents are the best people on this planet. My opinion may be a bit biased, but I'm sure they're at least in the top million. I don't want to say anything more because they never saved somebody's life or something and they may not be saints, but they are awesome.", I stated and Vaughn smiled. His amethyst eyes locked into mine, I did my best not to choke when I shovelled the first fork of pasta into my mouth. His expression turned into an amused one.  
"Is it so bad?", he asked and I shook my head hastily.  
"No, it's fine, it's...delicious, actually.", I reassured him. "It's only... I can't focus on my eating-abilities, which is quite embarrassing.", I explained and tried not to blush furiously. I failed. Vaughn smirked.  
"Because of your parents?", he asked teasingly. I rolled my eyes and felt my throat drying. I grabbed my glass and took a big gulp of wine.  
"Because of your eyes.", I answered and blushed even more. There was no need to hide my attraction to him, he probably knew about it. Probably? Chelsea, he knew before you did! I sighed and took another bite.  
"Chelsea, you need to... your thing with my eyes turns into an obsession, isn't it? That's kind of creepy.", Vaughn stated but I could see that he didn't mean it. His smile was so big that I could almost see his teeth flash through. Almost. We continued eating and drinking.  
"Did you use cream?", I asked and he shook his head.  
"Actually, I poured whatever you mixed together into the sink. Some more days and it would have started crawling.", he mentioned and I looked at him jokingly shocked.  
"You threw it away? And I didn't even get to see its first steps? How gruesome! What do you think you did?" Vaughn shook his head in disbelief.  
"I think I saved you from dying of food intoxication.", he explained and I shook my head in played outrage.  
"You really threw away my baby.", I said and tried to suppress my laughter.   
"If this really was your baby you would have possibly been the worst mother in the world. I mean, you probably forgot that it even existed.", Vaughn stated dryly. I shrugged and finished my plate. I also emptied my glass and poured in another bit of wine. Vaughn did so as well and I started putting the dishes into my sink where still rests white something with black spots in it were to be found. I fastly washed it away and turned around.  
"I'm going to finish this tomorrow. Do you want to go outside? There's a place where I always wanted to sit with a glass of wine and somebody else. And we have wine and you definitely are somebody else.", I suggested and Vaughn nodded.  
"This sounds good, actually.", Vaughn agreed and I took the small lantern I had placed next to my door.

"Do you have a lighter?", I asked and Vaughn nodded. I raised an eyebrow. "You do?" I did a double take on him and he nodded slowly. I grabbed a blanket while he took on his boots and followed him outside. "It's not this special, actually.", I said while leading him through my field. When we reached the cliff, I let myself fall to the ground and leaned against the big rock behind me. I tapped on the ground next to me.  
"This is kind of impressive.", he admitted and I looked at his profile.  
"It is.", I agreed and looked at how the full moon's light reflected in the ocean and how the waves crashed against the rocks before the cliffs. "You smoke?", I asked and pointed at the lighter he held in his hands. He smirked and turned it around. He handed it to me and I lit the candle inside the lantern. The warm light shone into our faces.  
"A nasty old habit I left in the city. I don't do it often. Actually, I threw away my last package and I at least try not to buy a new one.", he explained and I nodded slowly.  
"Well, you can't have any of mine, except maybe twice in High School, I never smoked.", I told him and watched him gazing at the ocean.  
"High School must have been very exciting for you.", he said dryly.  
"I guess it was a usual experience. You know, the stuff everyone goes through in High School. You try out things.", I explained. Vaughn looked down at his feet before his eyes found their way to mine.  
"I never went to High School.", he stated and I looked at him in surprise.  
"You didn't?", I asked and he shook his head slowly while watching me proceeding this information. I wanted to know why and there was no other way my brain could resolve this situation with than bluntly asking. Vaughn grunted and a bitter look found its way to his face.  
"I wasn't an easy teenager. I preferred work over school and there was nobody to force me to go there.", he stated and took a big gulp out of his glass before pouring in more. I held my glass in front of his nose, too and he filled it up as well. "But we're not going to talk about this now.", he whispered while coming closer to me. When I thought he wanted to close the gap between us, he moved away and grabbed the blanket next to us, unfolded it and covered us with it.   
"Are you going to tell me when we go to Mineral Town?", I asked and he shrugged.  
"There's not much to tell, anyway.", he replied and freed his hand from under the blanket and let his fingers run over my arms before they found their way up to my throat. They didn't stop there but ran over my cheeks. He started caressing it gently and I felt my body heating up. The redness on my face didn't come from alcohol only any longer.  
"I'm looking forward to this journey.", I whispered when his face came closer and closer to mine.  
"Me too.", he answered before finally pressing his warm lips onto mine. He tasted like tomatoes and wine, his smell was this awfully good mixture of hay and cologne. My fingers wandered up into his hair, I took off his Stetson and laid it down next to us. I felt a shiver running down my spine when he deepened the kiss and I noticed his tongue against my lips. I parted them and sighed. I was almost disappointed when Vaughn pulled away and looked back to where the ocean reflected the moon.  
"You know, Chelsea, you're special.", Vaughn confessed and I looked up to him confusedly.  
"Good Special, I hope?", I replied and Vaughn smirked.   
"Good Special.", he agreed and kissed me again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this new chapter and I'm kind of happy how everything turned out :) It feels good being up-to-date on here as well and I really hope you enjoy this chapter :)  
> Let me know what you think of it!


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